First Avenue Presents
Dirty Projectors (solo) with Otto Benson
Thursday, April 15, 2027
Doors 7PM | Show 7:30PM
Seated | All Ages
LISTEN
about this show
First Avenue welcomes David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors to The Cedar for an intimate solo performance.
Dirty Projectors
DIRTY PROJECTORS have launched their own label imprint Well-Tempered Zealot (via Joyful Noise & Secretly Distribution) with the song “Jumbotron,” their first new music since early 2025. Subverting expectations, there’s no guitar: David Longstreth here plays the piano, alongside Chris Bear (Grizzly Bear) on drums, Karl McComas-Reichl (Jeff Parker Trio) on upright bass, and a sextet of Los Angeles’ finest sax and brass session players. “Jumbotron” gives us a lens metaphor worthy of the band name, with Longstreth singing about two kinds of magnification: the enormity of the world experienced through a child’s eyes, and the paradox of new parenthood when life feels so small and so huge at the same time. “I was thinking about the big screen and the small screen. The big tent and the kind of tent you can make in the living room with a couple couch cushions and a blanket or two. Life and entertainment; attention and volume; focus and detail; quality and value. Listen to the song!,” says Longstreth.
Otto Benson
Otto Benson is a musician and recording artist from Brooklyn, NY. After first gaining online recognition under his teenage alias “Memo Boy,” his sound has evolved in increasingly surreal and introspective directions, blending emotional vulnerability with experimental textures. Peanut is the first vocally-focused album from Otto Benson, known for his heartfelt and experimental instrumental compositions. The album was made as a quiet accompaniment while navigating the American landscape and aims to give listeners a place of solace, internal reflection, and mystery.