Redemption For Animal Collective
Monday was an interesting night to see experimental indie rockers Animal Collective. Earlier in the day a whirlwind of negative reviews, from their concert at Webster Hall the night before, circulated the web. Disappointed fans complained about terrible sound, overwhelming bass, and lack of an encore, among other things.
Also, on Monday afternoon, [Pitchfork] ran a story about Animal Collectives recent letter from an angry mother. The letter reads: You should be brought up on charges for what went down Saturday night, is this an underground cult you are running with Animal Collective?
My daughter and her friends were terrified, no security, no police, not even a show, music playing backwards and men trying to lure them away, only one door to exit out and no cab would come pick them up because the location they gave did not exist, no one ever heard of the Polaris club or the address.
What kind of scheme are you running.....
I will find someone to listen and have your organization investigated, you endangered several young adults on Saturday night.
I hope your child never goes thru what hell you put ours thru, I hope you rot in hell, or is that were your from!
Sounds like a good show.
The combination of this letter and the hateful reviews from the previous nights performance had to leave fans wondering whether they should expect to be disappointed, or thrilled about a potential cult-like experience.
Animal Collective took the stage at approximately 10pm, following an ultra poppy performance by young locals Vampire Weekend. Avey Tare mentioned the bad vibes of the night before and then the band conquered the goal of redemption. Unlike most bands, Animal Collective use the live setting to experiment and transform their older songs, and deconstruct and reconstruct new ones. It surely is a pleasure to see a band willing to take chances, rather than just play all their hits, note for note. As usual, the trio played mostly new material coming from their brilliant new record Strawberry Jam as well as newer unreleased material. The bands hypnotic, psychedelic-freak-out sounds bounced off the walls of Webster Hall, as well-synced, colorful, bouncing lighting increased the magnitude of the supreme mind-fuck curated by Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist. Even those members of the audience who werent high as a kite probably felt as though they were. One of the biggest highlights of the night came from an extended version of Fireworks, which is ironically where most would say it fell apart during Sundays performance. The frantic explosion that is We Tigers also made the crowd go nuts.