Destroyer Pulled Me In At The Turf Club Last Night

Talk about night and day, I left an all ages K-Pop show at the Palace filled with teenagers that screamed for each song of the house music, drove a couple of miles to 21+ show at the Turf Club to see Dan Bejar’s project Destroyer.

Opening was NYC’s Eleanor Friedberger. I had caught her a couple of years ago a the Cedar and found myself captured by her quiet energy. Last night was no different. Friedberger has what the French call “Je ne sais quois” there’s just something about them that pulls you in and forces you to pay attention. She builds her song and you need to pay attention to the lyrics too.

I was not familiar with Destroyer before getting the press pitch for their show, the description of Bejar as “rock’s friendliest curmudgeon.” stood out to me. Turns out I’m more familiar with him than I thought – he’s also in The New Pornographers. Destroyer’s new album “Have We Met” was released a few weeks ago and the band opened with “Crimson Tide” from that record. There are artists I feel an instant connection with and that certainly happened to me again last night. I’m a sucker for layered and well organized songs and those were abound last night.

Set List: Crimson Tide/ Kinda Dark/ The Raven / Cover / Kaputt / Times Square / University Hill / It Just Doesn’t Happen / Cue Synthesizer / The River / Tinseltown / Chinatown / European Oils / Foolssong / Bay of Pigs