Darwin Deez, Leeds Metropolitan University

Photo Credit: Phil Smithies.

I hate dancing. It baffles me, why are young humans so obsessed with moving their limbs in time with a tune? Why when I try does it end up looking like some kind of freak-puppet show gone wrong? Perhaps Darwin can explain. Not Charles - Deez is your man. Gigs are often a place where fashionable, solemn faced twenty-somethings nod along impassively to ‘niche’ music which none of us have heard of. But the realm of Darwin Deez is not such a place. This is a place of adolescent light-heartedness where you can have a boogie without being judged, this is a place where you can wear a headband and not be ashamed. Not that I’m partial to either, as you may now know. It all kicks off with the band, minus Darwin, lined up front of stage shaking a leg, getting the crowd hyped for the entrance of he who we’ve all come to see. His lo-fi album was recorded with nothing but a laptop so there aren’t many intricacies to translate into the live performance, which works heavily in his favour.

The simple rag-tag post-pop we have all come to know and love comes across beautifully in all its simplicities. The crowd knows every word to every song and are wrapped around his finger when it comes to the dancing, even before he plays ‘Radar Detector’. When the opening strums of said song begin the whole place blows up with enthusiasm, the energy of the crowd bubbling over into utter madness. The same can be said about ‘Bad Day’, a song which shows off Deez’s pure pop sensibilities through managing to create a melodic pop song with lyrics like ‘I would like to be your girlfriend so I could dump you’. Cracking stuff. It’s like being at a karaoke club; there’s covers (Paul Simons’ ‘Call me Al’), dancing throughout (from both the crowd and Darwin) and of course music, which by the way is alright.

What it is that Darwin has captured so well with this performance is the reckless abandon of a teenager, not caring what others think and having fun regardless. Whether you love him or loathe him you cannot deny he knows how to put on a hell of a show.