A packed but not sold out Bluebird Theatre hosted the Dirty Projectors for their first Denver visit since raising their status this year (an earlier tour with Grizzly Bear snubbed the Mile High city). Tune-Yards, whom I've recently become very fond of, filled opening act duties. My crew arrived too late for her set but managed to see her last song, the standout "Hatari" from the recently released Bird-Brains full length (4AD). I saw her last (and first) in the same role for Sunset Rubdown's visit through Denver a few weeks ago so I wasn't too torn up about missing her. It was great to see her doing her thing though, even for such a short time. The intensely focused performance style of Tune-Yards is a showcase of what's possible when a poised and raw talent is fully exploited.

On that same front the Dirty Projectors were spot on fantastic. From both the persepective of musicality and the less critically evaluated barometer of entertainment. Much the way the acclaimed group draws heaps of praise for their idiosyncratic framework, they attract listening ears through a well executed musical showcase. And much the same way this Reverb reviewer surmises, the band raises the bar on live performance like few young bands try to, or are even capable of. Complex time signatures, messy intricate rhythms, and airy, otherworldly vocal harmonies all combine for an assault on convention. Whether it's the rollicking drums sounding more like bowling pins falling down a hallway on "Fluorescent Half Dome", or the refined abilities of the Dirty Projectors' lady singers harmonizing a purposefully brutal, unsynchronized chorus on "Remade Horizon", the band manifests an impression of hard working experimentation without veering too deep into the woods of unlistenable pretentiousness. Anyone can dick around with synthesizers, drum machines and samples to create dance party gold, but how many artists can recreate the warm hum of electronic synths through composed parts for ethereal human vocals? Nobody that I can think of, certainly nobody replicating it in a live setting.

With good reason, the Dirty Projectors have always been Dave Longstreth's band. As the genius behind the song writing and it's aforementioned complexity, the gentlemen with the Yale music degree is well established as director of all things Dirty Projectors. But where his singing style can be described as fitting well in a bad lounge act, the sirens around him express Longstreth's vision through their natural talents in stand out form. Amber Coffman, dressed in Western garb in possible homage to Denver's heritage looked like a pixie cowgirl in comfortable jeans and cowboy shirt. She held the spotlight often when said spotlight shined bright on the vocal trickery of the music. She absolutely ripped while riding high above the commanding groove of "Stillness Is the Move", giving it the R&B diva treatment it deserved with each shake of her pony tailed hair, each more convincing than the last. Definitely a highlight of the night, topped only by the DP + David Byrne collaboration track from the awesomely great Dark Is the Night comp, "Knotty Pine", slotted in as the encore. Coffman practically exploded while singing the crescendoing high register piece. Exemplifying a moment that so clearly demonstrates a real singer is in the room. Angel Deradoorian also had one of these moments. During the hushed gorgeousness of "Two Doves" only she and a finger-picking Longstreth stood on stage while a silently rapt audience watched in attention. Magical isn't the word, but it's close. The same sentance could be a summary for the entire night of Dirty Projectors goodness in Denver.