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OAKLAND, Calif. – If there's one thing the Bay Area loves to do, it's get weird. Weird art, weird music, weird food, weird dance moves – it's all on the table. So having the closing night of Station to Station here – complete with a Dan Deacon-led dance-off – only seems right.
Saturday night's event, held at Oakland's historic 16th Street Station, started the same way as the "happenings" at other stops on the Station to Station route. There were smoke bombs by Olaf Breuning, food trucks serving local cuisine, and a little bit of mood music. Evan Holm's Submerged Turntables served up ambient jams from the artist's underwater record players, followed by Sun Araw and the Congos who hit the main stage with a smooth and slightly rowdy set.
As the sun went down, the hodge-podge of creativity continued with the sultry pop vibes of Lia Ices, the medley of Chris Camp's whip-cracking (accompanied by Tony Goodman and Denise Shearin's auctioneering), and a body-contorting dance piece by choreographer Jonah Bokaer. No Age, who had previously played several the off-the-grid locations for Station to Station – under the side screen in Barstow, in the courtyard in Los Angeles – finally took the main stage to rock out even harder than they had before.
Back in the historic station's beautifully decrepit train depot room, Twin Shadow, dressed in a super-suave Dr. Evil-esque suit, played a set for all the lovers in the house. The artist also known as George Lewis, Jr. threw in his latest track "Old Love/New Love," which gamers probably recognized from the new Grand Theft Auto V. Before Twin Shadow had even wrapped up his set, however, Savages took the main stage and quickly worked up the crowd into a slow-burn dancing (or at least head-bobbing) frenzy – concluding their set with a nearly 10-minute version of their song "Fuckers".
Then there was Dan Deacon. On the train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Doug Aitken had mentioned he'd wanted to let Deacon – who performed a very truncated set in L.A. – close out the final stop with his performance. Deacon has an uncanny ability to get full-grown adults to do pretty much anything he shouts into a microphone, whether it's point to the sky or have a dance-off – both of which he did. He also got the assembled masses to form two "teams" and mimic everything their captains did, with the incentive being, "If your captain is doing a bad job, replace them with yourself." Then, he got them to form a massive London Bridge-style receiving line through which many of the party-goers passed in order to leave the grounds.
Again, the Bay Area likes to get weird – especially if it involves a dance party.
Deacon had only been with Station to Station since the event in Los Angeles. But on Saturday, as the tour revived one of the long-neglected palaces of train travel, he summed up the journey well – with just the right amount of humor and sincerity.
"Bank accounts ruined, marriages lost," he joked. "Faith in humanity restored."
All photos: Bryan Derballa/WIRED
