Live Review: Destroyer’s Dan Bejar at Hilliard’s Brewery 8/15

"It's been about 15 years since I last played in Ballard," Dan Bejar of Destroyer reminisced, pushing back his signature crown of curls with his hand. "It's still a very interesting place to play..."

Tonight's show was very interesting in particular: Dan was in town as part of the JanSport Bonfire Sessions, a series of free concerts held across the country in cooperation with Noisey.com. (Similar shows with different line-ups will be held this fall in Brooklyn and San Francisco.)

Admittedly, I haven't been back to Hilliard’s Brewery since Ballard won the Hood-to-Hood challenge in 2014 (remember how great that was?), so I'm not sure if the decor is always like this, but they truly transformed their space into a backyard party. A stage was set-up outside, against a fence adorned with cut-out guitar silhouettes. Food trucks were pulled up nearby. Outdoor games, like a beanbag toss, were set-up for attendees to pass the time. You could lounge in the grass, or on bales of hay scattered across the lawn. And, yes, indeed, there was a bonfire, with a nice man offering free marshmallows so you could roast your own S'mores. It very much felt like a friend's get-together, albeit one the dour troubadour of Destroyer was about to play.

Despite the "summer party" feel of the set-up, the skies above were ominously overcast. (You may recall the thunderous downpour the day before that moved Concerts at the Mural into the Seattle Center Armory.) But Seattle's Dude York brought their own sunshine with their danceable pop sound. Frontman Peter Richards performed with his usual passionate, animated stage presence, getting the audience to their feet. The local trio are finishing up their follow-up to last year's debut, Dehumanize, and we can't wait for more!

Vancouver band The Belle Game took the stage next. With their guy/girl line-up, synthpop style, and all-white attire, I couldn't help but liken them to a "Canadian Human League." What truly sets the band apart is the powerhouse vocals of frontwoman Andrea Lo. With impressive breath control, she belted out each lyric, holding onto notes for so long, even the audience was cheering in awe. At one point between songs, she thanked the sky for not raining on us, even pointing out a sliver of sunlight off in the distance, and crediting it to the good vibes from the audience.

And then, as the sun went down, it was time for Destroyer. Bejar took the stage, wearing a linen-looking shirt and loafers similar in style to nursing shoes, no socks. He kicked off the set with 2008's "My Favorite Year," off the Trouble in Dreams album, whose chorus adamantly warns, "Beware the company you reside in!"

He followed up with the brand-new single "Times Square," a track from his forthcoming tenth full-length Poison Season, out August 28th on Merge Records. His most recent work has such a smooth produced sound; it was special to hear the songs stripped down to nothing but acoustic guitar, how I imagine they must've been written. He followed it up with older tracks like "Foam Hands," "Helena," and "The Sublimation Hour," which he explained, "I wrote in the '90s... things were different then."

He went on to tell us how he was walking around Ballard earlier in the day, and spied a handbill on a phone pole reading, "'90s Dance Party." "Is that a thing?" Dan asked the audience, shaking his head sadly. One audience member yelled back, "This is it!" A certain KEXP volunteer in the audience (John Gleason) retorted loudly, "Are you sure it didn't say '90s Dan's Party?" Because, truly, it was his party.

Dan seemed to be in a great mood, maybe because he was playing at a brewery, and, y'know, free beer. "Let's burn through some more songs. It's a song-burning night," he said before launching into acoustic renditions of "What Road," "Savage Night at the Opera," and even the 2001 single "Farrar Straus And Giroux (Sea Of Tears)," which he introduced as "the saddest song I ever wrote. I think it's gonna go over really well tonight."

Somehow, Dan Bejar even set the stage for the strangest camp sing-a-long that night. During "European Oils," the audience loudly sang along to the lyric, "her father, the fucking maniac..." as they thrust their fists and beers in the air. Step aside, "Kumbaya My Lord"!

Destroyer returns to Seattle on Friday, October 16th at the Neptune Theatre, playing with a full band in support of Poison Season. There's no doubt it'll be a great show, but there was definitely something special about getting to see him in the backyard at Hilliard's, cast in the moonlight, with just his voice, his words, his guitar, and, of course, that hair.