The Most Fun in the World with Dan Deacon

« The Most Fun in the World with Dan Deacon

Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 9:24 pm by Russ

Party over here. Dan Deacon detonated his special brand of tough love on the kids at Emo’s Friday night. When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth opened with an explosion, shooting off a series of fascinatingly percussive songs about…splinters? You had to be there.

The Deacon performance was bizarre and brilliant, replete with ritual and hard talk that at once harnessed the energy of the crowd. I can’t remember the last time I saw several hundred people screaming their favorite lines from the film version of The Mask. And, while some faint childhood memory remains of creating a human tunnel, I certainly don’t recall achieving an emotional high. However, driven by Deacon’s hard, 1990-something beats, his audience soared and kneeled in visible, unified ecstasy.

There’s love and joy under Deacon’s mask of concentration. (Mask. Hmm.) Watching Deacon shout commands to the masses, I found a familiar pop culture connection rising irrepressibly in my thoughts: The Lonely Island’s “Just 2 Guyz.” If you haven’t, you’d better check it out. Point is, Dan Deacon is serious about fun. Sssmokin’.