Animal Collective returned to Los Angeles last night less than four months from their last appearance at the El Rey. They stepped it up a notch (at least size wise) and took on the Vanguard. Timothy and I rolled up just in time and, thanks to the nice Spaceland folks who were putting the concert on, we were able to get Timothy’s camera in. After a severe pat down, second only to the Palladium, we were in. You could tell by the gigantic disco ball in the middle of the dance floor that this place was used more for dancing than rocking out.
The best news was that as soon as Animal Collective went on you could instantly tell that the sound was dialed in. Since I was a bit far back I closed my eyes and started to bob back and forth a bit as they slowly worked their way into a vocal barrage introduction. I had to use the edge of the table to lean against to keep my balance.
AC are one of those bands, like Radiohead, that until you see them live, you can’t possibly imagine how they make the noise they do. The easy assumption is that it’s all through computers and pre recorded tracks. But really it’s just finding new ways to make sounds most normal humans aren’t accustomed to playing or hearing. The only album I currently own is their most recent, feels. There’s so much going on there that I never even attempted to decipher it. I just knew that there were at least a few great tracks and I was hoping they might touch on em that night. It was a no lose situation though because the songs I’d never heard before were blowing my mind anyways.
Voices mixed with grinding and swirling guitars. Initially I thought the stand up drums were electronic ones but I think everything was run through a center effects/echo deck that helped put out that patented AC sound. This was music I’ve never heard before. The only comparison that came to mind was, “this must have been what it was like seeing Pink Floyd in the late 60’s”. Their sounds aren’t all that similar but they both are, and were, so far ahead of what anyone else was trying at the time.
What works for AC is that they can mix all their styles together. A perfect example is “Grass”. With oohs and aahs in the background and a perfect melody on top, it’s hard to believe you’re only seconds away from hearing a stage fun of grown men screaming repetitively into their mics. It was a bit loud, but clean, not that noisy kinda loud.
It was getting a bit hot and crowded so I ducked back by the bar to find Dennis. He was in a similar boat as me, only having heard feels maybe a dozen times. We both just stood our ground and enjoyed in amazement as AC bounced all over the place. The circling guitar loops never dragged on too long. You would be worked into a trance and once they had everyone under their spell they’d venture out to whatever style of music seemed best at the moment. “Banshee Beat” put a perma grin on my face as I tried to sing along to words I didn’t have the slightest clue what they were. “The Purple Bottle” was the same way. From trance to cheshire cat smile and back again, all the while letting the music take full control of wherever my body wanted to go.
I was in such a trance I can’t even remember if they played my favorite song, “Loch Raven”. It’s understandable because I would’ve been way lost in it and probably would’ve been having some beautiful childhood flashback. There’s so much more going on in these tunes than I know even after a dozen listens and one live show.
For those of you who slept on this one you’ve got a chance to catch them in San Diego on March 14th at Epicentre and in Austin on Friday the 17th at Fox and Hound. I can’t even imagine how packed that show will be, especially since it’s the only one they’re doing down there. One last thing that surprised me was that I was expecting to see a lot of the “Arthur” crowd there, yet it was surprisingly more filled up with your standard rock turnout. It’s good to know that AC’s music transcends above any one group and has the ability to reach an audience that showed up in enough force to sell the place out. Congrats to the fans and the band on that one!
Just found out they have 170 tix for sale for the Austin show. If you’re gonna be there and don’t have a badge or band, click here
Listen to a couple tracks here
