There are few shows as completely entrancing as a Destroyer show. There is just something about Dan Bejar, founding member and lead vocalist, that grabs hold of you before he even lets out a syllable. And then when he does that unique cadence and timbre of his voice only envelops you further. Every time I've had the pleasure to see Destroyer it's been usurped by their next set. Coming off their latest album Dan's Boogie, Destroyer continued on that trend of better and better shows with an incredible night at Thalia Hall.
Jennifer Castle opened up the night with a very tender and quiet set that had to combat the loud and boisterous Thalia Hall. Usually you can bet on the TH crowd to be reverent for more hushed performances, but there must have been something in the air that night because they were certainly a bit rowdy. After her song "Justice," which is incredibly soft and ethereal, someone from the balcony had enough and yelled out for the crowd to be respectful.
Nonetheless, Castle's voice and guitar (occasionally accompanied by a bit of harmonica) broke through the noise and her songs landed incredibly well; particularly those of her latest release Camelot. Her voice has a timeless quality, evoking folk artists of yesteryear as much as her contemporaries. "Camelot", "Earthsong" and "Blowing Kissing" rang truest during her short but fantastic set.
When it came time for Destroyer, the crowd's energy shifted. "The Same Thing as Nothing at All" started off the set with soaring instrumentals that made way for Dan Bejar's legendary vocals to welcome us to the show. "Your entrance was its own Red Scare/You quote unquote the French au pair". A mixture of talk singing that gradually evolves into sing talking as the instrumentals continue their upward trajectory eventually bursts into "It Just Doesn't Happen", one of the more dancey songs of Destroyer's catalog.
The whole set kept that vibe going, letting the more jammy of Destroyer tracks, like "Kaputt" or "Cue Synthesizer" for example, have the spotlight. The setlist seemed determined to reach perfection with a mix of his 2010s output highlighting the new songs off Dan's Boogie. Jennifer Castle Joined Destroyer on stage for "Bologna" which flowed wonderfully into "Sun Meet Snow" before the latter reached its explosive center. While I did wish for a few older songs to find their way into the set, what was there was more than enough to satiate my Destroyer needs.
Towards the end of the set, familiar twinkling added a huge high point to the night. "I made a tomb for all the incompatible cells I could take" say Bejar, leading the crowd into his amazing "European Oils". The song is off Destroyer's seminal album Destroyer's Rubies, a record that I've used countless times to introduce friends to Bejar's unique songwriting. "European Oils" in particular is a mad concoction of everything you could want from Destroyer: dizzying lyrics, intricately layered instrumentals that occasionally erupt into a cacophony of beauty, soaring background chanting and of course, Dan Bejar's signature voice at its most intoxicating.
It all came to a head with the final songs of the night in a grand display of Destroyer's complexity. The second longest track of Kaputt "Suicide Demo for Kara Walker" saw Bejar sitting on stage, letting his band run with the songs expansive instrumental, standing only when his time came to serenade us with the track's twisting lyrics. The encore followed with a devastating one two finale of "foolssong" and "Bay of Pigs (Detail)", a special ending for a phenomenal show. Based on how I am still reeling from how great this set was, I wish I had seen at his show earlier this year because theer can never be enough Destroyer in your life.
All photos by Julian Ramirez.
