Was Animal Collective at Bowery Ballroom The Best Concert Of 2009? Far be it for me to pose such irresponsibly hyperbolic questions so early in the year. So Was Animal Collective at Bowery Ballroom Worth DVRing the LOST Premiere For? Well, obviously. This is a band that’s now headlining (Pitchfork) music festivals, so making mincemeat of Bowery’s soundboard and relative intimacy was not a problem for a band riding their strongest album and loudest praise to date. The music fest note runs deep; this was essentially an expansion of their set at P4K last summer (one of my favorite shows of ’08), with a similar string of Merriweather jams (“Lion In A Coma,” “Daily Routine,” “My Girls”), a Panda Bear “cover” (“Comfy In Nautica”), the array of mini light towers, a shot of unreleased material (this time, “Blue Sky“), and a total lack of Feels. It was also similar in that it was so good.
For all its Jam of ’09 shortlist status, unintentional iPod ad “My Girls” actually wasn’t the crowning moment you’d expect. Maybe that’s because it was just the second song played; maybe that’s the reason it was the second song played. Curious either way, given it was a live performance that set tongues wagging in the first place. Instead it served as an early kick to a show that steadily surged, seeing the Deakin-less trio ride their psychedelic loops, deep dub bass, and racket drumming (check Noah on “Essplode”) into a full-on raved up apex with the set-closing “Brother Sport.”
My favorite moments came via the dramatic reinventions of Sung songs, maybe because they were so new to my ears, but also because it’s that consistent drive to rework their catalogue that makes Animal Collective such an exciting live experience. It doesn’t always work, occasionally it’s just soundboard masturbation (some Feels-era shows were tough to take), and last night it was transportive. The encore featured a nearly unrecognizable “Winters Love” stripped of its campfire feel, swapping brightly strummed acoustics for resounding bass and a slightly r&b groove, Avey and Panda harmonizing for minutes, endlessly, beautifully melodic. You can hear what AC’s making of their material these days by refreshing this link to nyctaper (overloaded at the moment), which has a band-sanctioned set of live MP3s from the previous night’s show at Grand Ballroom. I bring it up because the hypnotic transformation of “Leaf House” was one of last night’s highs that didn’t come from all the pot smoke (so much pot smoke all the time), and rather than read about it you should just have this practically identical take from 1/19:
They’re on a world tour. Make your way there, expect a setlist that resembles one of the two below, and hope for some Sung Tongs tweaking.
BOWERY BALLROOM SETLIST (1/21)
01 “Also Frightened”
02 “My Girls”
03 “Blue Sky”
04 “Slippi”
05 “Leaf House”
06 “Summertime Clothes”
07 “Guys Eyes”
08 “Lablakley Dress” –> “Fireworks”
09 “Lion In A Coma”
10 “Brothersport”
—-
11 “Winters Love”
12 “Comfy in Nautica”
GRAND BALLROOM SETLIST (1/20)
01 “In The Flowers”
02 “Leaf House”
03 “Blue Sky”
04 “Guys Eyes”
05 “Summertime Clothes”
06 “Daily Routine”
07 “Lion in A Coma”
08 “Lablakely Dress”
09 “Fireworks”
10 “My Girls”
11 “Brother Sport”
—-
12 “Beat”
13 “Slippi”
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Man I bopped my head HARD last night. Like totally got into it with my neck and sometimes my jaw would just clench down really hard while I was boppin’ and I’d start grinding my teeth in PURE ANIMAL COLLECTIVE BLISS.
MAN!!!!!!
You are just so damn clever and witty man….you rock bro, man you probably dominate any argument you ever get in because you are soo goddamn witty. you deserve a fucking award, you should write a fucking book man,,, you are THAT GOOD.
Really stoked you are into me!
!!!!
I like how they wear their pajamas on stage.
Do they still wear head lamps? Last time I saw AC was at Black Cat like 3-4 something years ago. Can’t wait for Fox Theater (Oakland) in May.
I was at the Grand Ballroom show and I thought it was good, mainly because the songs are good, but their live show is not something that leaves me gotta-see-them-every-time-they-play. Certainly was expecting a bit better.
The reworking of Leaf House and the 10+ minutes version of Fireworks were mesmerizing though. I’ll gladly download the nyctaper bootleg to give Winter’s Love a listen.
After all I gotta ask, am I the only one that misses actual drums in their music? I thought that’s what made Fireworks so amazing.
what time did the show start? openers? seeing them in chicago tonight and want to plan accordingly
They had Blues Control at the Grand Ballroom show (worst band I’ve ever seen!) and Drawlings opened this show, from what I’ve read online, that band sucked too.
Drawlings is a project of Avey Tare’s sister. Saying that her set was not good is probably the nicest thing I can say. The whole sampling of crying babies… I’m not into that.
blues control were the best live band i saw in07 HANDS DOWN.
WAS THERE AN OPENER? why hasn’t anyone covered that fact yet.
Banshee Beat was ridiculously bassy, like to a brown-note degree, with cool dial-up modem sounds wooshing around. Really great. Also, “Blue Sky” is really worth getting excited about if you’re going to catch them. Maybe it was just the excitement of a new song, but I thought it was one of the highlights.
what concert were you at?…..”a total lack of Feels”…..
Best Concert of 2009! *joke*
Hilarious. Good thing that exact same thing wasn’t said in the original post….wait……
were they all like “meeeoowww” and everyone else was all like”kitttiiieeees”?
No one did that at the Grand Ballroom show, except me… I yelled: KITTIES!!!!!!
when is that nyctaper site gonna be fixed, i wanna downnnnload
I’m uploading to a much larger server, so that show should be easily accessible tonight. I also recorded Bowery Ballroom, and the sound quality is perhaps the best I’ve ever done. That will also be up tonight or tomorrow.
Thank you so much for posting these! Much appreciated.
animal collective is over-rated
I don’t get the hype on this band.
i don’t get the hype on your favorite band
I agree that AC is over rated and I like them. I enjoy their stuff but I really don’t think it deserves “best of 09″ posts even as a joke. Again I like them and think they do creative stuff but it’s only good not great. As for live shows I don’t know. I saw ‘em at Southstreet Seaport a while back and it was great for about 30 minutes then it was like “enough already!” That show at least was like really good karaoke but that’s about it. Looks like they’re playing some instruments again now though so maybe it’s cool. I’d like some live drums though.
i’m super curious as to where the songs Lablakely Dress and Beat come from..
being stuck in eastern Canada, i’ve never been close to an animal collective show,
but can definitely agree that recording of “blue sky” kicks so much ass.
that wasn’t “essplode” …just “lablakely dress” –> “fireworks” like the night prior
You failed to mention the re-working of Slippi which is FUCKING INSANE! Great to hear them doing Here Comes The Indian stuff again.
Stereogum should change its name to AnimalCollectivegum. Jesus Christ already.