Come See the Duck!

It's a bit after 1 o'clock in the morning here, and I believe that that's indication enough that I loved this Deerhoof concert at the Troubadour to death: I stayed up to write this quick post!
Man oh man was it amazing. Deerhoof was so on the ball. I was a little concerned that they wouldn't be able to maintain their full sound, now that they've only got one guitarist. But their loss only meant that the remaining three members had to put more into the music. The show was certainly better than the one I saw in Cleveland, and that was when they were four.


Their drummer -- Greg Saunier -- never ceases to amaze. He's like a jazz drummer gone spazz-pop ... he still uses the smallest possible set ever (snare, hi-hat, bass), but keeps his sound so damn full. Certainly fuller than most bands using full sets. He anticipates every beat, changes time so naturally, and plays around with his limited set as though it's the world to him. (And it probably is.) He cracked his hi-hat. Literally, a fifth of the thing splintered off.
The guitarist who's still there is amazing as well. You can clearly see him counting (in eights, I think!) throughout every song, really showing that these guys are one hell of a tight band. Amazing. Fantastic. I must go to sleep ... that had to have been some figment of my imagination. (You can confirm that it wasn't by viewing my flickr photos of the thing right here.)

Here be some [older] live tracks for you all. I never like to write a post without delivering any music!

Deerhoof - Panda Panda Panda (live)
Deerhoof - Milk Man (live)