Last night was one of the stranger shows I’ve been to. I knew to have no expectations about an Animal Collective show as you will probably be disappointed. Don’t expect any recorded material at all as these guys seem to be about a year ahead of their recorded output. When I saw them at Oxegen in 2005, they were loud, brash, the vocals were abrasive and despite the obvious mucky sound that night; rather good. I’ve heard they had since largley ditched their live instruments and that they had gone for a more electronics based setup.
With the stage flanked by two dressed-up skeletons, the three members took to the stage in relative darkness and the first strains of “Loch Raven” became apparent. It was an extended version of the song, extended maybe by four times in length, with plenty of drone and echoed noise backing up the disquieted singing of Panda Bear with Avey tutting into a microphone behind him. For the next fifty minutes or so, the show continued with these drone-based noise compositions compounded by only Panda Bear’s lone singing over them. The comparisons to Brian Wilson’s voice are flattering and showed a ring of truth last night, though occasionally his voice faltered slightly in the mix. The songs were all loop-based compositions in the vein of “#1” from Strawberry Jam and the crowd could do nothing but let it wash over them and enjoy the strip lighting show coming from the stage.
One of the highlights for me was the new song they played which employed the syncing of the lights with the arpeggiated pulse tones of the song to great effect. No doubt some uber-fan will be able to tell me the name of the song.
As time went on, I began to wonder why Avey wasn’t singing at all. We soon found out when headlamp-wearing Brian Weitz explained that Avey had the flu and it affected his voice that he couldn’t sing that night. I’ll be honest I felt it was a little cheeky to say this near the end, as it clearly wasn’t a full Animal Collective show. Weitz (or Geologist as he is also known) left the stage with Avey for the night departing with the message that Noah (Panda Bear) had not played any Person Pitch songs in Ireland before and that he would close the show with a few of these songs. I got excited then, as did many others because personally, Person Pitch is one of my favourite albums of the year so a redemption could have been on the cards. Panda Bear played “Good Girl” and two others which were nice to hear but ultimately, only a rendition of “Bros” could have redeemed the show for me.
I still enjoyed parts of it but it was a short set, that never hit any peaks. Anyone else I talked to was similarly non-plussed about the show citing other more incendiary shows they have done in the past that far out-shone last night. Also, I hear that Panda Bear will be back in January so that is worthy of a consideration.
Update: Loreana has photos!
MP3
[audio:https://nialler9.com/mp3/Animal_Collective_-_Number_1.mp3]
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
I have to agree that waiting until the end (more or less) to tell us about the flu problem thing was a bit cheeky but I still really enjoyed it – just disappointed that something I expected to be so amazing turned out so flat 🙁
That new one is Daily Routine.. ta ta for the vidjoes.. I hope that the Panda Bear rumour is right. If they’re really gonna come back soon, he could support them! Eh!
Go on Bobby, ya uberfan. Thanks!
What did you think of it?
aww i dunno, i really enjoyed this loads
Can’t believe another überfan beat me to naming that song! I thought it was fucking great.
I saw them in London on Thursday (though I had to pay a tout a painful amount of money). I wasn’t expecting any songs either, but I was pleasantly surprised. They played plenty from ‘Strawberry Jam’ and judging from the crowd reactions, that was all most people knew. The set was an hour & 45 mins long, I think; started with a cool, eerie version of ‘Dancer’ and finished with ‘Leaf House’.
I wasn’t blown away at the time (perhaps that was down to how much I paid to get in) but I’m starting to appreciate it now as it was either pay a tout or get a train and boat home to Dublin!
I was enjoying it, but it definitely felt like half a set. The Panda Bear surprise was great. Carrots is his best song. I was so happy.
Poor Avey though.
I’m not a massive fan but do enjoy quite a few of their songs..however I was extremely disappointed, in regards to how much I paid and for the short and non-varied show. Seemed like a wasted trip from Belfast.
That may sound harsh but I’d be hard pushed to name a gig that I’ve been to which was worse than AC, sorry guys
don’t mean to wreck the love buzz, but they played half a set! then shirked behind having had a window broken and a two hour drive earlier that day… at least they were made feel warm and fuzzy by a fawning audience: “i’ve got some bad news dublin..” was greeted with woo woo and applause. did i miss something..?
They had no more material to play and their singer was sick. What did you expect them to do? Cancel the show? That would not have been better.
The cheers that geologist recieved for addressing the crowd was hillarious:
‘We’re not going to play any more songs, but we may come back some day and take more of your money.’
‘Hooray!’
Was at Mark Kozeleck on Friday, and he had the flu also, and moaned through the entire set! he sounded just like Owen Wilson (very nasal).
Should singers not take the flu jab?
Going to Devandra Banhart on Thursday. Hope he is eating lots of oranges…
Its not a simple business transaction in fairness. The people who cheered probably enjoyed the concert and would like to see another one. What doesn’t make sense?