I had been vaguely aware of Danielson for some time, but didn’t start listening to the band until I began my radio show on BreakThru about New Weird America. Putting together an hour on the genre every two weeks has necessitated that Danielson become a staple of my listening, where otherwise they might have gone largely unnoticed by me. Luckily, I’ve enjoyed playing their quirky brand of folk rock on my show for the past year and a half, mostly because they are so strange and quirky. I’d read up on Daniel Smith’s somewhat eccentric Christian background, but didn’t think too much more about it until tonight. Their performance at the Knitting Factory confirmed a lot of the things I already knew about the band: they’re nearly quirky to a fault, a rotating retinue of musicians flanking Smith, adorned in blue uniforms festooned with patches. But experiencing Smith in person entirely changed the way I perceive the music.
I came home from the show and immediately went to Danielson’s Wikipedia entry. After watching the band live, it was clear that this is a group steeped in its own history, which is important for you to understand as an audience member. It’s an interesting read, but perhaps the truest sentence in the entry is, “While the lyrical content was unabashedly Christian, Danielson Famile nevertheless received strong press and support from mainstream audiences due to their musical inventiveness.” That nearly sums up all of my feelings on the show. The whole mood is a bit too vaguely religious for me, but the quirkiness of the music ends up transcending this problem. Some songs are stronger than others, but when the band hits on something good, it’s quite good. Smith’s voice is surprising in person. Having never thought about what he looked like before, his high squeaky voice just was what it was: fittingly weird for the songs. His falsetto is more surprising live, a squeak that you’d never expect to come out of that 30-something-man standing in front of you. The highlight of the evening was definitely “Two Sitting Ducks,” which contains bizarre chord changes and multiple sections, and crescendoed with a great emotional swell, unlike a few of the other songs that just didn’t seem to take flight in the way I’d imagined they could. That MP3 is below for download. Sufjan Stevens and two of the guys from the Drums were there, which is cool, I guess, if you’re into either of those bands. Either way, here’s a few photos.
Danielson:
MP3: “Two Sitting Ducks” – Danielson
