Animal Collective @ Ottobar 5/10/09
Animal Collective are the most organic electronic band I have ever heard and they were simply amazing last night. I use electronic in a fairly loose way because they do bang on some live drums for songs, play guitar, and perform on their pads with a ton of found sounds. If I had not listened to their albums many times over before going to this show I would be under the impression that they were a bunch of kids messing around with their new effects pedals, but this notion is dissolved because of complexity of their songs and beautiful vocal harmonies. This is some incredibly orchestrated music in a way that I haven’t heard before, it was har dto tell what they were doing on stage at all times, but I could tell they pretty busy up there and it was always amazing when they could just stop on a dime and transition to a bridge or chorus.
short sidenote: the highlight of the show started before it even began, when we saw “Ziggy” from the wire/ gen kill dressed in leather and greased back hair. So awesome.
Many of Animal Collective’s slower songs came through like listening to a song in a dream, you only get a glimpse of the structure of the song here and there, just enough to make the song distinguishable. Then at brilliant moments the song comes through the wall and hits you hard. They begin their songs with a foundation of impressively layered sounds like boiling water over a train whistle and then pepper in drum beats, vocal harmonies, and most of all.. a melody. Older songs take a little more patience than the songs from Merriweather, but if you put in the time and focus you are rewarded. It’s completely unique.
The band came out to an equipment-full ottobar stage with the album cover as their backdrop (which pulsed and moved in an optical illusion with the lights and as you moved your head), a series of 5 large speakers spread across the back of the stage, tables to stage left and right full of electronic pads, keys, and pedals, and a drum set in the back right behind Panda Bear. I think I had forgotten that Animal Collective were just a three piece, and it’s always great to see a smaller band making a wall of noise. I was worried, since never seeing them live before, that the electronic instruments would create a boring set, like they do in many other bands, with the band members hardly moving behind their set-ups and barely looking like they were pushing the buttons to make the music. However, it seems like there is no song or transition that is completely pre-programmed, one can tell that they are actually playing these songs, pushing many a button on rhythm and really doing a hell of a lot up there.
Highlights of the set included “Lion In A Coma”, “Summertime Clothes”, and “Fireworks”. “My Girls” was performed very well, but it was lacking a bit from the album version for it seemed like there wasn’t that signature bass beat coming through with as much prominence. One of the most impressive things about seeing animal collective isn’t just the songs themselves but the way they transition from song to song so creatively and smoothly. You can hear the next song coming up and being transitioned into for a good 5 minutes in some cases before that song actually begins, as one song layers out into another, the entire set becomes more a whole than just a collection of songs. It puts you in a different place as you are listening, at times standing in place zoning out with eyes wide open and at others being unable to help but to close your eyes and bob around.
It was easily one of the best shows I had seen all year, one I almost missed for lazily not buying tickets when they were on sale, and thanks to a friend for getting me a last minute ticket. These songs will be playing over and over in my head for the rest of the day.
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Tags: Uncategorized , animal collective , ottobar
If anyone has the full set-list, please post. There was one song early in the set that I had never heard before. Really good stuff.
Nice grammar, Brent. NOT!
on May 11th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Nice Title, what is this a twitter post. Oh yea and double space after a period. duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!!!!
on May 11th, 2009 at 6:20 pm