Deer Tick certainly have nothing to be “Ashamed” of after their awesome performance at the Paradise last Friday, June 15. One of the last stops on their 2012 U.S. tour, they managed to put on an incredible show with the help of opener Turbo Fruits. Turbo Fruits, a tad bit late after being stuck in Boston traffic (unheard of, right?), started things off right around 9:15. These guys were a 4-piece group from Nashville, TN with a psychedelic/garage rock sound. In fact, just looking at them made it seem their band was about 40 years too late. All of the members had long hair and hippy-esque clothing to boot. But as you may expect, their ‘60s and ‘70s influences made them sound all the better. They hammered through 12 of their songs in about an hour, several of which even included Dennis and Rob from Deer Tick. Which brings us to Deer Tick. Luckily, this writer got to stand in the first row, exact center, so I didn’t miss any details. They marked their entrance with a huge bright marquis-style sign flashing “DEER TICK”. And the crowd goes wild. The five of them proceed to play through nearly 20 of their best songs from four albums and several EPs, including “20 Miles”, “Easy”, “Ashamed”, “Art Isn’t Real (City of Sin)”, and “Miss K.”  Later in the show, the band even made a few covers: about 30 seconds of The Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden” and the excellent Replacements song, “Kiss Me on the Bus”. The five guys were all bursting with energy throughout the show, except their bassist, who curiously enough was rather stiff the whole show (even playing his bass high, which I don’t think anyone’s done since 1990). Still, I found his composure to be an interesting contrast to the
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