Danielson/Animal Collective @ South Street Seaport, NYC 6/1/07
For most who made the trip way downtown for the River To River / Seaport Music Festival kick-off show, it was the official start to NYC's summer concert season. And you couldn't do better, opening with the uniformed Danielson and his familyre sounds 'til dusk, and the extraordinary avant-everything strawberry jamming of Animal Collective. For free. Love NYC.
Friday night AC were a trio; Panda Bear, Avey Tare, and the Geologist graced the Seaport stage, while Deakin did not. Well not technically; after moving around to a rear-view of the performance platform, friends pointed out Deakin sitting behind the PA system, on stage but out of sight to the crowd, just watching. We're told that he's not on this tour, but this has us pretty confused. Which is to say, we were at an Animal Collective show.
The set was dedicated to Sung Tongs and the forthcoming Domino-released LP; after a fantastic jaunt through "Who Could Win A Rabbit," Avey announced they'd be playing "some new songs." With a crowd pleaser and the slowly setting sun out of the way, the Seaport got its first taste of Strawberry Jam, sitting somewhere between Tongs' madcap bluster and Feels' inviting structure. Unlike their Webster show last year, which saw an already divisive band split its own fans into the frustrated and the fawning (the Geologist was "feeling it" that night, morphing every tune into a looping, abstrat sound collage), Friday's set rang true to most of the massive crowd gathered by the water.
To complete the set's Sungian symmetry, the Collective capped off the night with a perfectly spastic "We Tigers" (Geologist's whiplashing staredowns in full effect) and the classic, psychedelic vocal exercises of "Leaf House" -- but the trance-y calypso of new jam "Chores" ended up the night's post-show conversation piece. One of the year's best shows, easily, but being a free show, with one of the world's most creative bands, showing off excellent new material ... how could it not be? Lots of pics from both sets after the jump, plus a game of "Where's Deakin?" for your enjoyment.
DANIELSON
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
SPOT THE DEAKIN
Posted at 5:52 PM in Concert
Tags: Animal Collective | Avey Tare | Danielson | Panda Bear
yeah, no need to talk about danielson. not as hot. good ol' boring danielson. no word on how their performance went, no sir. not even deserving of a sentence compared to the luscious, incomparable, international animal collective.
nope. nothing interesting about danielson. nobody likes them, anyway. they're too weird. they're too "outside." serves em right.
Posted by: danielfather at June 4, 2007 6:07 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Honestly one of the best shows I've ever seen.
Posted by: Kaitlin Darby at June 4, 2007 6:28 PM | ReplyScore = 0
maybe deakin got put in time out?
Posted by: Liam at June 4, 2007 6:42 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I think you're wrong (as per usual). I've cobbled together 7/9ths of the album from live bootlegs and you tube clips and I heard only one track from "Strawberry Jam" in Friday's gig. They had previously stated that these May dates were mostly brand new material they wrote for that tour AFTER the recording of "Strawberry Jam" and with Deakin not on stage, I would say that is probably what we heard as well.
Posted by: frank drebbin at June 4, 2007 6:47 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Danielson was crap.
Posted by: o at June 4, 2007 6:50 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Not the best show I've ever seen. Not the best show I've seen this year. Not even the best show of this four-day-old month. As far as knob-twiddlers go, there are just too many electronic acts who do it a far better for me to care about indie rock/rave shows like that.
Posted by: Glenn at June 4, 2007 6:50 PM | ReplyScore = 0
people not liking animal collective show? surprising! haha there will always be folks who don't appreciate it, but the seaport was one of the better sets from them i've seen (seven shows here, not many, but enough to know). the new stuff sounds insanely good, i really cannot wait. i need some jam.
Posted by: flummox at June 4, 2007 6:59 PM | ReplyScore = 0
they're usually AMAZING live, but that show was just "meh"
Posted by: meh at June 4, 2007 7:21 PM | ReplyScore = 0
everyone i spoke to either loved it or hated it. i didn't see it, so what do i know. i hate working late.
Posted by: borry gerdy at June 4, 2007 7:28 PM | ReplyScore = 0
seriously. some love for danielson please?
Posted by: Dave at June 4, 2007 7:46 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I like Danielson a lot. Saw them last summer and had a great time. Anybody else seen the documentary?
Posted by: Leah at June 4, 2007 7:57 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I was drunk, and the show was awesome (if that's worth anything, which it certainly is to me, given that it was my experience and all). If you like a different genre of music, then your opinion here is kind of... silly. That's right. I've likened your opinion to a cereal stealing rodent. Obviously if you're not that into a band the show won't be great. I wasn't thrilled when I saw KISS, but I didn't post it on all your favorite KISS message boards.
Really, I have nothing new to add here, except this:
Posted by: dan at June 4, 2007 8:09 PM | ReplyNext badass free NYC show- Television/Apples in Stereo/ Dragons of Zynth in Central Park. YEAH!
Score = 0
Unless they totally strayed from their usual set for this particular show, you didn't hear the new album. frank drebbin is right about the fact they haven't been playing Strawberry Jam on this tour. Via a band post on the AC message board:
"none of the new songs are strawberry jams. we've played most of them for the past 1.5 years so to us they aren't new. however, it's inevitable that people will assume they are hearing the next record when they hear we're playing mostly new stuff. i've even seen it written in show previews. we have about 9 new songs on this tour that we put together in just the last two weeks, plus the reworked older jams. it was an intense but fun practice sesh. so yeah, we're two albums ahead now just like when, as you said, we played all feels songs before sung tongs had come out".
After that "Premature Evaluation" piece on Friday, it would be pretty ridiculous if you cannot even recognize the songs on the album...
Posted by: matt hamm at June 4, 2007 9:36 PM | ReplyScore = 0
photos up here:
http://flickr.com/photos/jberg/sets/72157600312604844/
http://tirck.blogspot.com
enjoy! great show!
Posted by: jason at June 4, 2007 11:46 PM | ReplyScore = 0
was awesome show, new stuff was rad, sung tongs is my fave, first weekend of summer, didn't spend a dime (had a flask). man i love summer.
Posted by: socks at June 5, 2007 12:13 AM | ReplyScore = 0
The set wasn't strawberry jam. No biggie, just a little correction.
Posted by: switch607 at June 5, 2007 6:30 AM | ReplyScore = 0
Sound sucked where I was standing. (Right in front of the sound board.)
I couldn't hear anything well enough to have an opinion. Frustrating. The people talking all around us were much louder than the music.
Posted by: Dirty Lenin at June 5, 2007 2:09 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I wish they mixed it up alittle more, but can anyone tell me how much of the show I missed, I had to leave at 9:05.
Posted by: Dan at June 5, 2007 3:58 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Stereogum is actually right; they played quite a few songs off of Strawberry Jam, including Peace Bone, Fireworks, and Chores. So no, they weren't ALL post-Strawberry Jam songs. Just a few, like "You've Got the Will to Joy"
Posted by: purplepurple at June 6, 2007 5:07 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Well, I've heard "Peacebone" and they didn't come anywhere near it on Friday.
Posted by: Frank Drebbin at June 6, 2007 8:24 PM | ReplyScore = 0