Photo and review by DCist contributor Valerie Paschall

Atlanta psych-noise rockers Deerhunter may have built a reputation over the past year for shocking their live audiences, but last week the band seemed visibly shaken. The previous night, guitarist Colin Mee departed the group, making Thursday their first show in several years as a quartet. This shift in the band’s chemistry was the latest in a string of personal and public relations disasters in the past two months which resulted in a more subdued show and, at least for the night, a tamer Deerhunter.

Deerhunter had started the year on an overwhelmingly positive note. They released their second album, Cryptograms, to intense critical praise and everyone from Pitchfork to MTV had these ATLiens under their spotlight. At first this spotlight just served to amplify the band’s eccentricities, such as Cox’s penchant for wearing dresses and smearing blood on his face during live performances.

However, since mid-July, this spotlight has turned harsh, especially after the band started keeping their own controversial blog, including their infamous posts on defecation and eerie Dennis Cooper-esque sexual fantasies. The latest black mark has been a publicized e-mail fight with L.A. blogger Jeff Weiss, which Cox credits (in the band’s blog, deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com) with the dissolution of his gimmicky stage costumes.