After avoiding Philadelphia for eight years due to circumstances unknown, Deerhoof brought their definition-defying rock forms to of all places a church! If irreverence toward convention were blasphemy, then Deerhoof would find themselves suspended in rock purgatory, each song containing multitudinous changes in gross violation of the catechism: one moment, post-punk; the next, avant blueswailing; after that, mathy prog. Although their antecedents become clearer in the live performance, they never quite give them away.

But it’s the musicianship that really knocks you out anyway. The guitarists chase each other up and down the fretboards, their tunings eliding harmonies one moment and eliciting them the next. The rhythm section moving in their variegated strides, leaping up peaks and diving into troughs. There are no chaotic, amateurish freakouts - everything seems well-rehearsed - while remaining absolutely absurd. Fitting, really.

After what critics considered a weak album, this show simultaneously made me curious about Deerhoof again but cautious for fear of a letdown - theirs is a deeply intricate, but unexceptionally varied sound. After growing so much from Reveille to Apple O’ maybe Milk Man was just an aberration, and the internet-only release was just let off steam. Here’s to hoping…