Destroyer played Brooklyn Steel with Nap Eyes & Eleanor Friedberger (pics, setlist)
For a guy who famously doesn’t like touring, Dan Bejar seemed to be having a very good time at Destroyer‘s Brooklyn Steel show on Saturday and was the chattiest I’ve ever seen him. (Which is to say he may have spoken to the crowd three times.) When not singing, he tends to crouch down by his mic stand and bliss out on the band, and he was smiling a lot when doing that this time.
Dan’s got a lot to smile about. Have We Met, the new Destroyer album, is great, and his six-piece band sound fantastic. While the new album is heavily synthetic in design, the band transform it into more of a rock feel, especially on the album’s more atmospheric songs. They brought a lot of atmosphere, too, with two keyboardists and trumpeter JP Carter who uses effects pedals on his instrument to make it sound otherworldly.
There were so many highlights from the evening, including Have We Met‘s singles “Crimson Tide” (which opened the show), “It Just Doesn’t Happen,” and “Cue Synthesizer,” and everything from Kaputt, including a show-closing “Savage Night at the Opera” that was sped up and felt kinda punk. There was also the cover of Lou Reed’s “Ecstasy,” which was terrific and right up Destroyer’s alley. The other surprise of the night was when Eleanor Friedberger, who had wrapped up her run opening the tour a few shows back, came out to sing lead on “The River” and “Hell.” She did a great job as Dan watched from the side of the stage, playing a little tambourine and donning Eleanor’s coat in the encore.
Saturday’s opener were Canadian band Nap Eyes who had a lot of fans in the audience and treated folks to a preview of their new album, Snapshot of a Beginner, which is out at the end of the month. PIctures of their set, and the whole Brooklyn Steel show, are in the gallery above, and you can check out setlist and video of “Ecstasy” and “Canadian Lover / Falcon’s Escape” from the show, below.
SETLIST: Destroyer @ Brooklyn Steel 3/7/2020
Crimson Tide
Kinda Dark
The Raven
Cover From the Sun
Kaputt
Times Square
Ecstasy (Lou Reed cover)
It Just Doesn’t Happen
Cue Synthesizer
The River (with Eleanor Friedberger)
Tinseltown Swimming in Blood
Chinatown
The Man in Black’s Blues
European Oils
foolssong
Suicide Demo for Kara Walker
Encore:
Hell (with Eleanor Friedberger)
Canadian Lover / Falcon’s Escape
Savage Night at the Opera
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photos by P Squared
