It was not a good night for Savannah’s music scene cynics.

Dan Deacon has played Savannah before, but I’d never caught him. As he began, he recounted a gig at The Jinx when a fan knocked over his entire digital kit, bringing the set to a quick conclusion.

Accidents like that must be one of the hazards of playing on the floor, at the same level as the audience. But as a great show produced by Safe//Sound and Dollhouse Productions on Monday proved, the positives vastly outnumber the negatives.

If there’s anything more engaging than the layers of the witch doctor Deacon’s music, it’s watching him work the crowd.

The crowd did whatever Deacon asked — they pointed, kneeled, stepped back, divided into teams, even exited the back of the building and came back in the front after creating a long bridge of extended arms and united hands.

Deacon was like that wacky camp counselor, gone all psychedelic.

After his lengthy set, Deacon personalized fans’ souvenir tickets and posed for photos for as long as he was wanted.

Deacon was preceded by Grand Buffet, an energetic and often-satirical rap duo from Pittsburgh that revved up the crowd.

The flat out great local band Triathalon kicked the evening off with its occasionally soulful garage surf rock.

There were a few minor technical issues, including too much bass and drums in Triathalon’s mix and an uncooperative speaker in Dan Deacon’s set, but the vast majority of the crowd didn’t even notice those.

I took pictures. First you’ll see a few of Triathalon, then Grand Buffet, then Dan Deacon.

Click for larger versions.

Dan Deacon has more than 33,000 fans on Facebook, but his web presence is a little hard to get a handle on. I hate to say it, but the best background on him can probably be found on Wikipedia.

Photo by Shawn Brackbill

This will be Deaconâ€s third visit to Savannah. He is currently supporting his new album America (Domino Records) that debuted on August 28th. America has been described by the New York Times as “a dark love letter of sorts to the country”. Rolling Stone states that “his music and sound-scapes depict the beauty and poetic nature of his homeland”.

With this new body of work, Deacon explores all dimensions of instrumentation, melding acoustic and synthetic tones, pop and classical scores, and experimenting with a host of players on a variety of instruments. In short, Deacon has honed his take on the sound of “America”, uniting disparate elements to create a cohesive message: “The future surrounds us. Let us begin”. Relevant to the recent election, Deaconâ€s visit to Savannah is very good timing indeed.

Here’s “True Thrush”:

Check out the Facebook event invite. Tickets are available at Graveface Records and via the Safe//Sound blog.

Click here for Grand Buffet’s Facebook page. They’re a hip hop duo from Pittsburgh.

And Triathalon, one of Savannah’s best young bands:

Triathalon at Fashion’s Night Out on Broughton Street