I first heard Gus Dapperton as an opener to 68: Still Woozy (S-) when I went to see him live a bit over a year ago. I remember getting into it and being surprised by how much I liked it right off the bat, which was only emphasized when the Still Woozy came on and left me incredibly disappointed.
Which, this isn’t the place for that, but that remains by far my most disappointing concert experience to date. The weed-smell was particularly strong, and despite how much I wanted to love the performance, I think it was not good. Like, to the point that I think maybe a sound guy made a mistake, or something, I don’t know. In addition to that, the songs had just not been adjusted well to fit a live setting—it sounded like the studio recordings had been flattened and had the vocals removed, and then Sven’s live vocals along with them was also not good, and just all around it was not a good time. He didn’t even play guitar, which, like, I know he’s a good guitarist, why was he just doing his bad singing to the backing track when he could have been playing good guitar. Ugh. It sounded bad, and that made me sad, and I left early, and that also made me sad because I’d been quite excited.
Anyway! Point is, Gus Dapperton opened on that day, and Gus Dapperton crushed it. And then I promptly put him out of my mind for a year. Eyo. But now I have listened to him, and I report that I’m pleased. Not inordinately so, but I think he’s good, he’s solid.
His first album is a little unpolished for me, a little too… not synth-heavy, but synth-only, sometimes. I don’t know if that makes sense. Like, it feels too empty sometimes, and not a good kind of empty. But I think for the most part it doesn’t feel overwhelmingly that way. That’s my main complaint, but on the whole it still feels quite groovy and fun.
His second album, Orca, is great, I liked it a lot. It’s put together and catchy. I like all the songs, and there are a couple songs that I really love already. In particular, I found myself listening to “Post Humorous” on repeat, that’s my jam for sure, and “Medicine” was also one that I clicked with pretty easily.
Henge was also good, it was polished and groovy like Orca, though I didn’t like it as much. That’s not to say I didn’t like it, because I did—for the most part I think it’s fun and engaging and well put together. I was just less immediately drawn to it, I guess. Orca had two songs that I really clicked with quickly, and I think that makes a big difference. Henge has lots of songs I enjoyed, but none that I had that connection to, none that I found myself singing to myself afterward, none that I found myself trying to learn the lyrics of. That makes it a lot harder to feel a specific connection to the album, I think.
But yeah, on the whole I found myself enjoying Gus Dapperton. He was very consistently enjoyable, and I felt like he had a lot of emotion and energy that shone through his music. He put himself into it in a way I could feel, and that’s always a neat experience. Solid A- for sure.
Gus Dapperton complete, now listening to: LAUNDRY DAY
tunafruitsandwitch 