Sama Sama, Deerhoof

Deerhoof is one of those bands whose sound is impossible to describe. But one thing’s for sure—their action-packed show was a jubilant experience indeed.

Hailing from the state of San Francisco, Deerhoof has been around for close to 2 decades; self-producing 11 albums that have been of great influence among the indie community landscape. Being purveyors of all things fresh and experimental, Deerhoof has been consistent in making sure that every album sounds nothing like their last; resulting in a mish mash of explosive sounds that can only be described as the “Deerhoof sound”.

Before the commencement of the show, die-hard fans could be seen sitting on the floor right in front of the stage as other fans lingered and chatted in excitement of the show that was to come. The band was greeted with roaring cheers from the Malaysian fans as they spared no time for introduction and dived head first into their famous hit “Fresh Born”. Greg Saunier’s signature spastic drum grooves unsurprisingly wowed the crowd with beats that go off time on purpose and yet still managing to fall back into the pocket.

As lead singer and bassist Satomi addressed the crowd, she spoke shyly in broken Malay, saying mismatched words like “Sama Sama Deerhoof”, leading to the crowd simultaneously laughing and cheering at her adorable attempt to be relevant to the crowd. She then put down her bass, freeing up her hands for a full-on dance session and passing on the duties of thumping bassy fuzz sounds to guitarist John Dieterich; whose low rumble on the guitar blew the crowd away. After hearing it live, it’s no wonder his guitar tone was praised by Radiohead’s Ed O’brien back when Deerhoof opened for Radiohead.

Throughout the night, the band raised the roof as Satomi worked the crowd with her awkwardly awesome dance moves. Her enthusiastic moves were infectious and some ardent fans in the front formed a dance group of sorts, copying Satomi’s dance moves exactly. Upon noticing them, Satomi burst out into laughter so badly that she had to stop the music to exclaim that they were the best dancers in Malaysia. Feeding of the crowds energy, she then tried to push the envelope, asking the crowd to follow her as she broke into a flurry of awkward dance moves. The enthusiastic crowd responded by following every step of her dance, causing the whole band to laugh in astonishment as they did not expect this good of a response. Satomi thanked the crowd charmingly and couldn’t stop laughing as she told the crowd how much fun she was having.

The band’s set list drew to a close with Deerhoof classic, “Dummy Discards A Heart”, the crowd was evidently unsatisfied and wouldn’t let the band go until they heard more. Swiftly responding to the crowd’s demand of an encore, they came back on stage, this time, with Greg taking on the role as the frontman of the band. Greg stood there, wiping the sweat of his brow and announcing that they were going to play a new song from their album, jokingly titled “Sama Sama”. For this song, Greg and Satomi swapped instruments, showcasing the versatility of the band members. Finally, the band closed off with “Come See The Duck”, where Satomi again got the crowd to participate and shout “Come” at the command of her wave. The band then bowed out, ending the high octane; energy-filled; groove packed night with big smiles on the faces of the audience.

Article by: Othniel Ting | Photos by Adeline Hong