Deerhoof
Fever 121614, Live in Japan
POLYVINYL
8/10
What are live albums for, anyway? For a living, working entity like Deerhoof, their new live album falls in line with those lighting-in-a-bottle recordings that capture one-of-a-kind jazz and noise performances. Fever 121614, Live in Japan doesn’t aim to recreate any of Deerhoof’s studio cuts—one gets the feeling that not even Deerhoof could recreate their own studio recordings in a live performance. Instead, Fever feels like a document of a larger moment in the group’s lifespan. With the addition of Ed Rodriguez to their lineup back in 2008, Deerhoof became a class-act avant-rock band. Onstage, the band now becomes the world’s best Deerhoof cover group, turning their airtight weirdo-pop compositions into riff-centric rock tunes. The performances captured here can’t feign allegiance to their studio-recorded brethren. Songs like Deerhoof vs. Evil‘s tender ninth-inning heartstopper “I Did Crimes for You” get turned into masterful plays of shock-and-awe. The song can’t remain the same, and we’re better off for it.
