David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors to Play Two Shows in Intimate Point Reyes Venue
Dirty Projectors frontman performing classic albums, new material at the Dance Palace on November 7 & 8
The regular calendar for the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station reads like your standard Marin County community fare. There will be some pilates classes, a few yoga lessons, instructional classes for senior citizens and a staging of “The Mitten – A Christmas Play for Little Ones and their Families,” put on by a group of elementary school students, which just sounds adorable.
And oh yeah, it will also host a couple of performances from one of the most acclaimed indie rock musicians of the past 25 years.
On November 7 and November 8, David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors fame will play a couple of intimate solo shows at the uber–cozy neighborhood venue. He’ll be joined by Alex Bleeker, bassist for beloved New Jersey slack rockers Real Estate. A North Bay resident, Bleeker (who will be performing his own solo songs these nights as well) approached Longstreth with the idea of playing at the Dance Palace.
“I love the area,” said Longstreth. “I try to spend as much time up there as I can. Alex just hit me up and said he was going to start booking shows at the Dance Palace, and that I was the first person he thought of. I didn’t really have to think much about it–I was like, ‘let’s do this.”
For the shows in Point Reyes, Longstreth will perform some of his newest material for an opening first set and then follow with solo performances of two legendary Dirty Projectors’ albums—“Swing Lo Magellan” (on November 7) and “Bitte Orca” (on November 8.)
These performances will come on the heels of an experimental run of recent shows billed as TBA/D-lo (To Be Announced/David Longstreth) a billing that feels right, since the line between Dirty Projectors and David Longstreth has always been blurry–he’s the only permanent member, and the project has oscillated between pure solo efforts and more traditional “band” outings.
With the ephemeral character of the Dirty Projectors made all the more unclear by the evolving trends of music, post-pandemic (when live performances and touring schedules were completely disrupted), Longstreth has leaned into that opacity. The TBA/D-LO shows were a pretty masterful way of acknowledging the futile nature of labels.
“The pandemic gave us an opportunity to rethink so many things,” said Longstreth. “For me, one is the idea that the live show is basically marketing for the album. There’s a huge creative opportunity in working things out in front of people, inviting the audience to become a part of it. There is something really special about playing songs that no one knows yet — the heightened attention, the sharing and receiving in real time.”
“And there can be so much pleasure, for audience and performer alike, in embracing the dynamic differences between live show and recorded album–the painterly possibilities of recording; the elastic, improvisatory, unpredictable dimensions of performance. So, with these TBA/D-lo shows — Dance Palace included — I want to place primacy on the live experience–all of us coming together, exactly once, to create something in real life and outside of clean definitions, in that time and place.”
When and how Longstreth decides to release new tunes, they will certainly be revelatory (he said he’s experimenting with beat-driven, Brazilian-inspired and jazzier compositions, among other directions.) The music of Dirty Projectors has always been wildly ambitious and unique, ranging from concept albums about the Eagles’ Don Henley (yes, him), elaborate re-imaginings of classic punk releases, soaring indie rock statements and bucolic folk recordings.
In recent years, he’s focused his efforts on “Song of the Earth,” an orchestral spectacle that premiered at the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2023. The last Dirty Projectors release was a 2020 collection of 5 EPS, all essentially released simultaneously.
In fact, it had been years since Longstreth truly explored the songs from classic Dirty Projectors releases like “Swing Lo Magellan” and “Bitte Orca.” He was inspired to revisit those albums after a gig in Portugal, when he spontaneously began rehearsing “The Bride,” a deeper cut from “Bitte Orca.” Feeling enlivened by that bit of pre-show muscle memory, he performed the song live and was met with a rapturous response from the crowd.
“To me, the pleasure was in the rediscovery, and in performing it spontaneously, on short notice,” said Longsteth. “I was surprised and heartened that the Portuguese audience recognized the song, of course. But, honestly, the decision to revisit those records was more introspective and to do with my own process.”
Longstreth said he’s still determining how to recreate the intricate, interweaving elements of those albums as a solo artist. Both releases featured starring vocal contributions from Amber Coffman, Longstreth’s former girlfriend and one-time bandmate in Dirty Projectors. Transforming those many moving parts into a singular effort should be a formidable challenge for Longstreth, but one completely within his capabilities. After all, this is the artist who recreated Black Flag’s hardcore masterpiece “Damaged” into a beguiling art-rock manifesto.
“Sometimes artists have these very intentional moves to revisit an older album, and for better or worse, this is not that,” said Longstreth. “This is really just because I think it would be fun to see how it feels. Part of that is the curiosity that comes along with how exactly I’m going to play these songs.”
The unpredictable nature of these shows will only add to the special feeling sure to accompany these small, communal gatherings. For a few nights, the Dance Palace will be that place of primacy and performance that Longstreth always seeks to create.
Show Details:
David Longstreth with Alex Bleeker
Where: The Dance Palace
When: 8:15 p.m., Thursday, November 7 and Friday, November 8
Tickets: $54, Friday sold out, Thursday tickets available here.