Setlist -

Chocolate Girl
Leaf House
Summertime Clothes
What Would I Want Sky
Daily Routine
Slippi
Lion in a Coma
Fireworks

Encore:

Banshee Beat
My Girls
Brothersport

You ever have one of those moments where you are at a concert, wondering whether or not what you are witnessing is real? You think you’re someplace else. You’ve just zoned out.

The other night, I had one of those moments. I’d had been looking forward to checking out Animal Collective and Grouper at the Fox Theater for quite some time. The band were one of the best live shows I’ve seen in a long time. I found myself smiling the whole time and bobbin’ my head endlessly. It was the type of show I would have kicked myself for missing.

I mean, I guess to start with Grouper, you gotta talk about Liz Harris. Harris’ music is a mixture of softly-strummed acoustic guitar and her delicate, dreamy vocals, both of which are heavily drenched in reverb. She isn’t known for stage presence or charisma, but her ability to transport you. Playing mostly off last year’s Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, she moved me with her avant-garde guitar plucking and her quiet, hazy vocals. It was like a nightmare I didn’t want to wake up from. I mean that in the best way possible.

On a side rant: Animal Collective is gaining a new younger audience. They’re disrespectful, loud, obnoxious, and overly sedated. Not all of them, but just the few I bumped into that night. These shows need to be 21+…that is all.

Almost as if to say, “We will smash your expectations”, the band opened up with two older songs, “Chocolate Girl” and “Leaf House”. Both were in the art-rock vein, “Chocolate Girl” very expansive, while “Leaf House” was more intense. But after that, Animal Collective went to the mid-way point of this year’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, with the super fun “Summertime Clothes” sliding directly into the new indie summer anthem. While appreciative of the old material, the quite-thick crowd really lit up with “Daily Routine”, and the wackier, noisier vibes of the following “Slippi.”

Things continued with “Lion in a Coma” off Merriweather Post Pavilion and “Fireworks” off Strawberry Jam. The encore brought “Banshee Beat,” which I believe was an improvement live vs 2005′s Feels. However, it was crowd favorite “My Girls” that showed the most energy, a driving intensity that really reached the crowd (no doubt helped by the chorus, “I don’t mean / to seem like I care about material things / like a social status / I just want / four walls and adobe slabs for my girls. WOOO!”).

So I’m back from my Animal Collective journey and let me tell you, it’s amazing out there. The locals are nice but the out of towners are getting kind of rowdy. But don’t let that deter you from this very special band. This is history in the making people. Catch it while you can.

Animal Collective – Fireworks

Animal Collective – Slippi

Grouper – Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping

RSS Comments?

Leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.