Dan Deacon

Baltimore producer/electro-wizard Dan Deacon has become somewhat of a hero in certain local circles. In fact, his tenure as a fly-by-night party monster in this town predates even my Athens existence, so I’ve enlisted the help of Reptar guitarist Jace Bartet to illustrate why his upcoming 40 Watt show is not to be missed.

No stranger to rockin’ parties himself, Bartet provides a brief oral history of Deacon’s Classic City adventures:

"I’ve seen his crowds grow dramatically in the last eight or so years. I saw him in 2004, playing to 12 or 15 half-interested people. His music, at the time, was a mix of bizarre pop songs and noisy experiments. He mostly told a lot of bizarre stories and spazzed out through his mouth onstage, and I thought it was totally great. For some reason, he really took a shine to Athens.

"On Wednesdays, there used to be this awesome karaoke party at [defunct Normaltown dive bar] Foxz. Dan came, and managed to dislocate his shoulder from dancing and had to go to Athens Regional. That was my introduction to him. He [came] a few times a year for the next few years. Each time, there would be more people there, and his set would be more music-centric. The last time I saw him was at the 40 Watt a few years ago, and it was a madhouse—a bunch of people going completely crazy and sweating all over each other. I felt really happy at the world.

"Dan Deacon was the kind of guy you wanted to root for, but at the same time someone you weren’t sure would make it. He was making music that was really of himself… I don’t think he takes for granted that he has had to really claw for his success, and I’m really grateful that I have gotten to see a guy come from so small to [playing] crazy 40 Watt shows."