Animal Collective introduce Merriweather to NYC

January 20, 2008, at Grand Ballroom

By Rema Rahman
Published: January 23rd, 2009 | 1:50pm

Music that plays right before a band’s imminent on stage arrival is often a mix of indistinguishable and sometimes inaudible instrumentals. But on the evening of the presidential inauguration, it was presumably Animal Collective that chose to have Barack Obama’s election night speech blaring over electro beats at their Tuesday-night show at NYC’s Grand Ballroom.

The rehashed speech elicited cheers from the crowd, but soon after the lights dimmed on the upstairs Manhattan Center venue the audience quickly turned its attention to welcoming the Brooklyn trio to the stage. The band took to a sparse stage decorated with only a handful of short, tubular light beams among intrinsically wired keyboards and mixing tables.

Playing on the release date of its highly anticipated eighth studio album, Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino), the band opened its set with the record’s “In the Flowers,” which neatly segued into sound-effect favorite “Leaf House” from 2004’s Sung Tongs (Fat Cat). Animal Collective showcased tunes like “Guys Eyes” and Merriweather’s best track, “My Girls,” among other tracks from the already much-acclaimed release. Also peppered throughout the show were pieces from 2007’s Strawberry Jam (Domino) and 2003’s Here Comes the Indian (Paw Tracks).

With their vibrating bass lines that filled the sold-out but intimate venue, Animal Collective singer-guitarist-single-drum-hitter Avey Tare (a.k.a David Portner) self-sampled his own vocals while the band’s main head-banger and electronics-mixer Geologist (Brian Weitz) strapped his signature light bulb to his forehead, flash-lighting his way around his intrinsically wired mixing board. Sharing duties on vocals and board was Portugal-based Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), who released his own highly regarded solo effort, Person Pitch (Paw Tracks) in 2007.

Often described as the most sonically avant-garde band in today’s heavily electronified music scene, Animal Collective is one of the few groups that live up to the hype, on stage and on personal listen. By throwing away traditional music composition (and any strict band form, while they’re at it), the members of Animal Collective follow their own rules at making hypnotic compositions, and are vehicles for some of today’s most creative and sonically intellectual music.

Animal Collective Feature
Strawberry Jam review