By Alex Schaaf

Before I went to the Dirty Projectors show this past Friday night at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge, I had heard from some people who saw them earlier in the week that their set was excellent but subdued, as Dave Longstreth and the rest of the band played through the setlist with little movement or visible excitement. But then I saw them play Chicago. Clearly I need to find out why other people were lying to me, as last night’s show was full of intense guitar dueling, excited movement around the stage, and a ravenous crowd that ate everything up with a response normally only seen at a hometown show.

First I want to talk about the opener, Tune-Yards. I arrived to the Bottom Lounge a little late, and I thought that I had missed the opening band. This was almost a relief to me, as I knew I wouldn’t have to wait very long for Longstreth and crew to walk out onto that stage. But then Tune-Yards came on, and I realized the show was starting an hour later than was scheduled. A bit of disappointment hit me, especially as Merrill Garbus, the eccentric-looking leader of the group, started wailing and emitting strange vocal tones into the microphone. My friends and I looked at each other with the same look – “This is going to be an interesting set.”

However, mere minutes into that first song, I was converted. Garbus performs by looping various vocals and percussion parts together, and then singing over them with her diva-like vocals, which went from hushed whispers to wailing R&B in no time. Garbus’ voice was simply incredible; the first thing I thought of was that she sounded like the female version of Animal Collective’s Avey Tare, but she took that even further until I could no longer classify her with one easy catchphrase.

The crowd loved Tune-Yards’ set, paying very close attention, and giving raucous applause after each song. This response was nothing, however, to the way they would respond to the Dirty Projectors’ set.

The Dirty Projectors, led by Dave Longstreth, are certainly an unlikely group to hold the banner of “the leaders of modern indie music” that many people think they possess. Longstreth plays a stuttering, fractured guitar over equally confusing percussion parts, while the female singers of Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian, and Haley Dekle add complicated vocal lines that treat their voices as distinct instruments rather than just something to harmonize the melody with. But put all these things together, and it results in a one-of-a-kind sound that Longstreth has been honing for years, and one that has hit something of a peak with this year’s Bitte Orca, an album that many people have been calling “the album of the year” since the day it came out.

The live show was even more powerful and energetic than the album, as the heavy R&B beats translated to the live setting extremely well, setting a booming groove behind the frantic guitar noodling and textured vocals of the rest of the band. Longstreth’s guitar playing, something he does “backwards,” playing the guitar left-handed, is even more impressive in the live setting, as you see how effortlessly he plays the complicated riffs and progressions that sound so impossible on the record.

The vocals of the three women were also quite impressive live, as I could obviously see that the women were singing, but I was amazed that those parts could be produced by live humans with such precision and accuracy. Who needs Auto-Tune when you have these kinds of skills? Amber Coffman certainly stood out the most, as she sang her crowd-pleaser “Stillness is the Move” with the confidence of a musical veteran, someone that knows how good she sounds and is excited to share the song with the audience. She took the microphone off the stand for “Stillness” and took center stage for the entire song, and the crowd ate it up, giving her the biggest ovation of the night.

Overall, the show last night showcased both an up-and-coming band that deserves a closer look, and a more established act that shows us what “indie” music in our time has the potential to sound like. As many people yelled out to Longstreth after the astonishing “Temecula Sunrise,” – “Unreal!”

Buy: Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
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MP3: Dirty Projectors – “Stillness Is The Move”
MP3: Dirty Projectors – “Useful Chamber”
MP3: Dirty Projectors – “Temecula Sunrise”
MP3: Dirty Projectors & David Byrne – “Knotty Pine”