Deerhunter and Lilofee
February 24th at Mezzanine

The opening party of Noise Pop 2009 brought together a small city’s music elite, the movers and shakers, the promoters and organizers, the likeminded aficionados and scene-setting hipsters, the industry folks, music press, and among the most impassioned of San Francisco’s music loving community. Currently in its 17th year, Noise Pop has come to represent a tireless commitment to independently released music, as shared by not only San Franciscans, but people across the nation who make the trek to the City by the Bay to share in the experience. Since last night was the kick off party, the energy was high and the conversation drunk and flowing, all under the guise of one thing: To celebrate music and the community it breeds and supports.

The “community” aspect of the festival is most visible on the opening party, because it’s the first night of the bash and the schmoozing and socializing is relentless. This night is only for badge holders or people who were on the ball early enough to RSVP to the free event, and the VIP space upstairs was stacked with folks involved in the festival and beyond. Old friends embrace, new friends meet and greet, acquaintances all share in the excitement that the week has to offer. After Live 105’s DJ Aaron Axelson spun some tunes for the imbibing bunch, San Francisco’s own Lilofee took to the stage. Lilofee is an electro power-pop four-piece fronted by a sassy female singer, Kimi Recor, whose theatrics are just barely second to her voice as she strutted and sprawled all over the stage to pumping bass beats and danceable rhythms, at one point pulling her panty hose off and flinging them into the crowd. Things got a little abrasive there for a minute, but Lilofee probably found themselves at home on the Mezzanine’s strobe-light flanked stage before young, high-energy scenesters who wanted nothing but to dance along to get warmed up for the week ahead.

Deerhunter was headlining, and for a band whose popularity has been on a steady and increasing rise over the past two years, this was quite a treat for those of us who’ve seen them time and again, and also for newbies to their intoxicating stage show. They are a band who, progressively throughout their set, get more and more intense, so the audience stays with them every step of the way, from the coherent opening strains to nodding off to their hypnotic walls of sound, bouncing to their thumping guitar chords, and moving dreamingly to Bradford Cox’s strangely beautiful melodies and vocals… this is druggy, explosive, and shocking all at once, translating onstage in a way that simply is not achieved through their studio albums. Deerhunter played a long set of their droney tunes, one bleeding into the next through looping and haunting chord progressions, the grinding rhythm section anchoring everything in accessible, sometimes danceable beats. There was even a half-assed mosh pit going down in the front, with kids flailing into each other as the band towered up above.

Towards the end of their set, Deerhunter stepped off stage amid the sounds of Paul Stanley’s stage banter (from the bootleg CD, People, Let Me Get This Off My Chest: The Very Best of Paul Stanley’s On Stage Banter), as a somewhat stoned and confused crowd laughed and looked around nervously, just waiting for something to happen—Deerhunter aims to shock. And then, of course, the band reclaimed their instruments and kicked it back in, building up to an epic onslaught of sound that had my eardrums ringing for hours afterwards. The band crafted a thick sonic fog of textured noise as they stood detached, flooded in shafts of light all red, green, and blue, as a smoke machine clouded them to mere silhouettes. The crowd stood dazed, but rapt. Deerhunter is among the best out there, and as their last blasts of noise gradually looped and faded out, the crowd, which had thinned considerably, looked at one another, across the dance floor and up in the balconies with one resounding, unanimous “wow.” This is live music.

Watch: Deerhunter [at youtube.com]

Read past installments of It Shows:

Andrew Bird: February 19th at the Fillmore

Sparks, Delta Spirit, NOFX, and Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli

Willie Nelson, the Walkmen, the Knitters, Jay Reatard, Tera Melos, John Vanderslice, and more