The past Saturday, the gymnasium at Skidmore played host to bands Delicate Steve and the Dirty Projectors.
As a thin crowd filtered in at the beginning of the night, the gym felt like a strange venue to host a show, one almost reminiscent of a high school dance, but that in itself was something different and therefore appreciated. It’s not every day you can see bands that typically play sold out (and consequently tightly packed) venues in larger cities. Once the music started and the lights were off, the mood of the evening transformed rather quickly into that of a concert and it all came together properly with ease.
I know I’ve said it before, but a bill of two bands is one of my favorite formulas for live music. Performance, a quick intermission, performance. With this set-up, the bands can feature totally diverse sounds and the show will still be enjoyable. In the case of this particular show, the bands complimented each other wonderfully and both brought quality craftsmanship and creativity to their sets.
Delicate Steve is a five-piece from New Jersey, whose music, I quickly learned, brings a distinctive inventiveness to the instrumentation of their live set. The guitar playing in their set drew me in from the beginning and the other members worked well together in creating their compositions. The band’s music is mostly instrumental, with some songs featuring light vocals. It has a hypnotic quality to it while still being danceable and overall was a pleasant surprise and kickoff to the night.
Seeing the Dirty Projectors in a setting such as Skidmore was a really fun opportunity to take advantage of. The Dirty Projectors have been playing together for a decade now and have released seven full-length albums during their time as a band. The band played songs off their latest EP, “About to Die,” and also off their latest album, such as tracks “Offspring Are Blank,” “See What She Seeing,” and “Gun Has No Trigger.”
In my opinion, Amber Coffman is the standout talent of the group and hearing her sing live made the show for me. She holds a captivating stage presence and balancing her vocals with Olga Bell was very complimentary during the set. The pair executes an interesting display of what sounds like vocal gymnastics at times and is really fun and interesting to watch.
Keep an eye on Skidmore’s event calendar, for as we recently learned, not all events are exclusive to students.
Hit the jump or click the image above to see Andrew’s full gallery!
