It’s been a very long time since I’ve been to a concert. Sure, I go to plenty of gigs and shows, but going to Django Django’s concert at Seattle’s Neptune Theater on March 20 definitely felt like unfamiliar, or at least not recently familiar, territory. Harping on the “show vs. concert” distinction could seem trivial, but the high quality audio production coupled with a video backdrop eliminated any skepticism of semantic triviality.
It was a concert aesthetically and musically engineered for the audience but obviously enjoyed by the artist, as well. The aesthetics were daring, blunt and a bit trippy, perfectly aligning throughout with the beat and mood of the song and set. The intentional design didn’t just apply to stage décor or light engineering, but to the members of Django Django themselves — the group wore matching dark blouses, wholly befitting their British Isles origin.
More impressive than the aesthetics was, naturally, the gusto of the musical set. Django Django only has one studio album, so it wasn’t necessarily the surprise of which songs the band was going to play that fostered anticipation, but the fact that whatever came next was likely to be a hit. The band’s natural spontaneity allowed for live alterations and surprise jams both between and during songs— what fun!
There was that immediate excitement when the band played singles “Hail Bop” and “Default,” but there was just as much cheering generated every time lead vocalist Vincent Neff staged a shout-out to Seattle (something he did with humorous frequency). The energy of the set remained constant throughout, whether it was during a mid-set instrument shuffle to a more acoustic sound for “Hand of Man” or a full-band synth breakdown just for fun.
When the set ended, it honestly came as a bit of a shock. Over the course of 45 minutes or so, I had somehow forgotten that the rest of my life wasn’t going to be spent right there in The Neptune listening to Django Django. That must be the mark of a pretty fine “concert.”
Minneapolis based Night Moves opened for Django Django; they were similarly dynamic and crowd-pleasing. It was a well-matched line up that certainly did justice to the “concert” label. Although the bands are going their separate ways at the end of March, you can still catch both Django Django and Night Moves lives in the coming months. Check out Django Django’s dates here and Night Moves here.
Photo credit: Keegan Prosser
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