Mark Jenkins reviewed a February 2007 Deerhoof performance for The Washington Post:

Some rock bands struggle to retain their edge, but that's not even a consideration for Deerhoof, which performed at the Black Cat on Sunday night.

Entering its second decade of recording, the San Francisco trio makes music that is mostly sharp angles and off-kilter juxtapositions, put together in a way that suggests everything's about to fall apart. Thus it hardly mattered that the musicians were plagued by technical problems throughout their hour-long set. The chaos just seemed like part of the musical schema, which shifted from singer-bassist Satomi Matsuzaki's childlike chants to John Dieterich's deconstructed arena-rock guitar to Greg Saunier's jazz-metal drumming.

Less than four years ago, Deerhoof played to a small group of enthusiasts at the Warehouse Next Door. On Sunday, the band sold out the Cat, a club that holds nearly 10 times as many people. The band's increased following owes much to its 2006 album, "The Runners Four," which boasted a two-guitar attack the trio no longer has. After the departure of guitarist Chris Cohen, Deerhoof recorded the new "Friend Opportunity," which experiments with keyboards and electronics and gives more room to Matsuzaki's soprano.

At the Cat, Deerhoof played such "Friend Opportunity" songs as "The Galaxist," but in a style more reminiscent of "Runners Four." The blend of chirpy Japanese pop and squawky art-metal was both aggressive and abstract, offering more than enough little jolts to keep things interesting. And if some of those upsets came as a surprise to the musicians themselves, that just added to the sense of adventure.