“Psychedelic-disco-greatness” is a good way to describe the show last night at the House of Blues when Yeasayer and Daedalus graced Dallas with their presences.
Daedalus (AKA Alfred Darlington) was on before the headliner. Dressed in an outfit one could only compare to a 1700′s pianist (with mutton chops to match), Darlington completed the illusion of a colonial times British gentleman by politely thanking everyone for coming out to see the show before starting his set, where the facade dropped quickly and Darlington started to jam out to his own DJing abilities (imagine: Bach dropping it to Skrillex.) For an opener, Daedalus quickly inspired concert-goers closer to the stage to dance as he deftly flicked his fingers over his Monome to construct interesting beats ranging from modern dubstep to R&B inspired slow jams.
As great as Daedalus was, you could tell that everyone at the show was an incredible fan of Yeasayer, and the wait and thirst for the oncoming “psychedelic- disco-greatness” was simply killing everyone’s eager ears.
And with much anticipation, the band came on stage. Their red carpet of choice tonight was a the voice of a mechanical woman, robotically chanting “Hello Dallas” as the voice gradually spiraled into a beat. At this time, the band came out and wasted no time playing songs off the new album, Fragrant World. Starting off with “Fingers Never Bleed” and then “Henrietta,” the remaining non-dancers from Daedalus’s set joined in with the already-dancing-like-crazy members of the crowd. The performance of Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder at the front of the stage were reminiscent of a small choir of angels, and Keating’s front man disposition gave the impression that he’d rather have been in a 90s boy band instead of an angel with the way he jived on the microphone stand.
If the groove of Yeasayer’s psychedelic pop songs during the set wasn’t enough to get everyone engaged (particularly during songs like “O.N.E.” and “Madder Red”), the visuals on stage provided another layer of pleasure to the Yeasayer experience: a multi-pentagonal mirror backdrop placed upon geometric glowing shapes stood behind the band, with mirror keyboard stands to match, while thick green lasers and an advanced projection system colored the mirrors and surrounding disco balls with odd visuals and images that moved along to the music to spark the idea that even the stage danced along to the band’s song writing.
Ending the set with “Ambling Alp,” the crowd was eager for more and Yeasayer returned briefly to play their encore with tracks from Fragrant World, completing the night. With a sigh of sweet farewell, all exited the building gossiping about the success of the show.
