“Make it epic!” Dan Deacon‘s roadie was yelling in my ear as he held up a stack of stage monitors, working to keep the speakers upright despite the mass of bodies pummeling into them. He wanted me to take a shot of Deacon’s so-called Trippy Green Skull — an object that often stands in for the man himself at his absurdly egalitarian shows, due to the fact that it’s just about the only thing than can be seen from a distance of more than a few feet — from behind. That way, he reasoned, you’d be able to see the crowd spazzing out from the glowing skull’s perspective. There was only one problem: I was standing just a few inches from the skull and had only packed a 50mm lens: not exactly ideal conditions for taking a wide-angle shot. While I may have failed terribly at ‘making it epic,’ Deacon did not, fighting against all odds to turn in a set on Friday night that was almost impossibly energetic, given the circumstances.

Admittedly, the Hirshhorn’s After Hours party was a bizarre venue for Deacon from the start. While it was clear that the usual, neon-clad, sweaty masses present at Dan Deacon shows had showed up in force, the rest of the crowd, a mix of art enthusiasts, revelers and socialites, wasn’t quite sure what to do with the night’s performance, watching from a safe distance as if horrified, amazed or both. Add to this strange mix a late start, technical problems with the mixer and a rent-a-cop who attempted to shut the show down halfway through, and you’d think you’d have the makings of a disaster.

But you’d be wrong. From the minute he hit the stage (well, card table) until the last note was wrung from his hacked together setup, Deacon had the crowd singing along, dancing and even crowd surfing. As per his usual antics, he enticed the audience into a dance-off, incited a foot race around the museum plaza’s fountain and led what was surely the largest game of follow the leader ever held under the Hirshhorn donut. Sure, none of this is probably surprising if you’ve managed to see Deacon before. But judging by some of the reactions spotted at the Hirshhorn on Friday night, quite a few feathers were ruffled regardless. Mission accomplished.