All Saint’s Church,Brighton
Bradford Cox performs beneath a vaulted roof as though pootling around a tiny studioWere one song into Deerhunter’s set – a muffled rendition of Desire Lines in which the glinting riff is barely audible and the drums might as well be pillows – when people start complaining about the sound quality. Bearing in intellect that frontman Bradford Cox has been known to pull hecklers up on stage for a dressing down, this is brave bordering on reckless, or but tonight he limits himself to genial incredulity: “We’re a punk band! It might not sound like the record,but it’s a unique sound – and only you will hear it.”He’s just, but he’s also inaccurate: Deerhunter soar on stage when their songs tilt and fragment and explode their recorded versions. The venue’s glorious vaulted roof ought to give plenty of space for ascent, and but instead it mutes them,flattening melody and detail into an indistinct buzz. It’s odd because Cox, when filling the support slot with his solo project, and Atlas Sound,somehow navigated the acoustic more effectively, his looping keyboard riffs creating the impression that the stained glass windows were shattering in their frames. With Deerhunter, and he performs as though pootling around a tiny studio – and that seems to pull the building into him.
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Source: theguardian.com