Detroit, Michigan has had a tough run of it lately. Most recent news articles about the city portray what looks to be a dystopian, industrial wasteland, featuring pictures of abandoned train stations, homes and office buildings. It's not the type of place you'd chose to spend your summer vacation. The fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr's Daniel Zott and Joshua Epstein call Detroit home and make the kind of music that they do is a pleasant anomaly. What "kind" of music is that?
Take their cover of Gil Scott-Heron's "We Almost Lost Detroit" for example. The song was originally written in response to a partial nuclear reactor meltdown that happened near Detroit during the 1960s. The original song drips with soulful sadness in the best possible way. DEJJ's version retains the soulful mourning, but invites you to focus on the fact that we only almost lost something valuable, so lets just celebrate that.
Therein lies the band's charm. Rarely have I heard such weighty lyrics paired with such truly celebratory music. It's an alarmingly deceptive tactic that results in fans smiling and dancing to songs about things like watching the love of your life die before you at an early age. They could play at your best friend's funeral and it would be strangely and perfectly appropriate.
Some of their subject matter may be heavy, but that didn't stop these boys from having a truly good time on the Doug Fir's stage. I'm always impressed when a band can get on stage, especially on a Monday night, and play the same set of songs that they've been playing for months and still have fun. Their layering of live vocals, percussion and instrumentation on top of prerecorded beats and loops sounded true to their albums. With the exception of a vocal sample that played for a little bit too long, DEJJ put on a very tight show. They're definitely worth seeing live. The visual effects, which included an animated videogame-esque face singing in time on a spherical screen, were the icing on the cake, or maybe the extra Jr. on the Jr.
Speaking of that extra "Jr," these guys deserve to win something for that band name. It fits their style perfectly because nobody knows what to expect when they listen to them for the first time, but everybody's intrigued. The hook might be a little gimmicky, but once DEJJ has you on the line you're not going to want to let go.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. are currently on a headlining North American tour behind their acclaimed sophomore album, The Speed of Things. Check out my video footage of this show below.
No comments:
Post a Comment