django django san francisco

By: Alan Densmore
Photos: Melissa Hines

About four months ago, I wrote a late night drunken email to the big wigs here at AoT. I had just heard about Django Django and wanted to write about how we have to enjoy their music (or any other fast rising pop band with a one hit wonder type song, see Gotye etc.) while we can because the pop winds change fast and, “a cool track with a sweet video which sparks so much alt interest it gets too pop before we can appreciate it. I say let’s listen to some pop music and just enjoy the fruits of our endless musical labor.” I was talking, of course, about their single “Default” which stuck in my head enough that I had to buy a ticket to see them last night at Public Works in San Francisco.

We walked into a packed industrial building under the freeway in the Mission district to the booming sounds of falsetto analog folk rock sounding fresh out of the 70s blasting from the opening act a Minnesotan outfit calling themselves Night Moves. I hope Bob Seger is cool with that, but I know I am. This band stole the show for awhile until about halfway through Django Django’s set. They broke into “Default”, the crowd went nuts, we know the drill. They were utilizing a double sided projector illuminating two of the walls of the two story tall public works with shifting colors and large circles which increased or decreased in number based on the song going on.

When I wrote that first Django email I was mostly concerned with everyone advancing on in a typical hipster Internet-age fashion saying,  “in 2 months “Default” will be played so much that everyone reading this will hate that song but now is our time to enjoy it, buy into our inner 4/4 time and bob our heads at 120 BPM before our own ‘coolness’ forces us to move on to the next big thing”. I still believe this statement, but as Django Django played the up and down harmonies of “WOR”, their second to last song, I bobbed my head, moved my feet, spilled beer while dancing, and generally had a kick ass time. They have one more show on this tour and despite their explosive success and hearing their singles again and again I still haven’t gotten sick of their deliciously consumable pop and can’t wait until they swing back thru town.

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