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Filming for a video special, Pitchfork opened up RSVPs for a chance to see Deradoorian, Protomartyr, and a “special guest,” later turning out to be Wavves. The show was free with RSVP, but tons of people who missed out on RSVP were let in anyways. Villain is a small repurposed warehouse, used mostly for promotional events, already saw a lineup for the event an hour before doors opened. Villain is a modestly sized venue, but a little bit smaller than MHOW, but it seemed the Pitchfork staff cut off the crowd size to less than 150 to preserve intimacy.

Deradoorian is the solo project of Angel Deradoorian, former member of the Dirty Projectors. Deradoorian, along with Amber Coffman were mainstays of the sweet harmonies that was at the core of the Dirty Projectors’ sound. Her solo debut, The Expanding Flower Planet features an array of delicate and nimble instrumentation, along with those soft harmonies she provided for the Dirty Projectors

I make no secret that Protomartyr is my favorite band. Innocuously the hardest working band in the biz, they’re already on LP3 in as many years. The Agent Intellect (via Hardly Art) is looking to be their best yet, continuing their stoic brand of post-punk. Seeing the band at Villain was sort of a redemption. Earlier this year I caught them at the then work-in-progress venue, The Wick. The band’s sound suffered and got muddied in the weird acoustics and the soundboard hanging from the ceiling. Most of their set consisted of tracks from last year’s Under Color of Official Right, and dipping into No Passion All Technique for “How He Lived After He Died.” They previewed five tracks from The Agent Intellect, specifically, “The Devil In His Youth,” “Why Does It Shake?,” “Cowards Starve,” “Dope Cloud,” and “Ellen” (named after Joe Casey’s mother). The tracks are catchy, imposing, and too darn good. Notably, “Ellen,” was the quietest I’ve heard Protomartyr, but possibly their best track yet.

Admittedly, I’m not the biggest Wavves fan, but it was great to finally catch them live in a small setting. Despite Brooklyn Vegan leaking that they were the “special guests,” people in the crowd were still tossing up guesses during setup. The band went all over for their set, doing a bunch of old tracks (“King of the Beach”) and a lot of new ones from their upcoming record, V. Naturally a mini-mosh pit broke loose a few tracks into the set and didn’t stop till the last note.

EDIT: It would be their second album in two years, their debut (No Passion All Technique) came out in 2012, not their third in three years.