Watch Destroyer Cover Lou Reed’s “Ecstasy” In Brooklyn
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Dan Bejar is currently on the road touring behind his latest Destroyer release, the great Have We Met. And let me tell you, if you are a Destroyer fan, you should really make an effort to see these shows. The band sounds amazing, effortlessly blending highlights from the Destroyer era starting with Kaputt and continuing to Have We Met (plus some favorites from older albums) with all kinds of gorgeous textures. “Crimson Tide” already sounds like a classic Destroyer song; from “Cue Synthesizer” to “Tinseltown Swimming In Blood” to “Times Square” to a host of Kaputt tracks, the muscularity they put behind all the grooves and synths make the shows altogether dancier than one might have expected at pretty much any other point in Bejar’s career. I caught Destroyer’s Brooklyn stop on Saturday, and it was a special night.
Bejar’s brought something else special, too, by covering Lou Reed’s “Ecstasy.” (Leave it to Bejar to dig into a Reed album from 2000 for his sole cover of the show.) It’s a naturally sparse song, and provided one of the quieter meditations during Destroyer’s set. He had already played it at another gig, but now we have a video of it thanks to Brooklyn Vegan. Check it out below.
Another unique aspect of the show featured Bejar pretty much completely ceding the stage to Eleanor Friedberger during his set. Friedberger came out not to do another cover, or to sing one of her own songs, but to lead the band through two Destroyer songs — first “The River” and then “Hell,” in the encore. Bejar hung out sidestage hitting a tambourine until he got bored of it, and Friedberger sang the hell out of the two songs. Full videos from the New York show don’t seem to be available yet, but below you can check out Friedberger singing “Hell” in Chicago and a snippet of “The River” in Brooklyn.
Have We Met is out now on Merge. Revisit our interview with Bejar here.
