At the top of this album, you will hear the formidable Alex Lukashevsky introduce the music by announcing to the live audience that this performance is being recorded. He says, “But we are all trying to not to think about it. Including you. Right?” The band immediately launches into a captivatingly impractical version of “Play to Please” -- studded with supple synth, piano and drum solos. Swept into the easy and lyrically lovely/unhinged world of the tunes -- both audience and players soon forget that the event is, indeed serving another purpose besides pleasure.

 Look At / Look Out captures the fiery, dirty and energetic music of Deep Dark United live at the Tranzac -- the place where the band most often cuts a rug. It is here where the band is itself -- playing while forgetting that the tape is rolling or (happily) how the tune goes. A live recording of this band is a good recording. Their performances are where the loopholes and valleys in the songs are audible and the musicians (and songs) are most themselves -- funny, human, bossy and brilliantly elastic.