Last weekend - I think a large part of this blog will be retroactive posting for a while - I had the incredible opportunity, thanks to my friend Katy, or rather thanks to her boyfriend for being out of town for work and giving up his ticket, to see Animal Collective at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland, just outside of Baltimore. What an awesome experience. The list of groups I want to see perform live is a relatively short one, but also pretty difficult given they don’t tour around me very often, so this opportunity to check one off my list was too good to pass by.
They sounded incredible. I remember being less than impressed with live recordings, but the group was tight, well balanced, and the playing, the singing, everything sounded great. I was also really impressed with how much they actually do live. Very little is hit-play-and-go. Another added treat was that Angel Deradoorian, one of the singers, bassists, and keyboardist for the Dirty Projectors (another one on my list), was the opening act.
The setlist:
1. Change
2. Stop Thinking
3. Did You See The Words
4. Long Long Time Ago
5. Take This Weight
6. Knock You Down
7. Brothersport
8. Mercury
9. Your Choice
10. Frights
11. We Tigers
12. Summertime Clothes
Encore:
13. I’d Rather
14. Little Kid
15. Taste
As you can see, the set mostly strayed from standards and featured a lot of new stuff. Two surprises I enjoyed the most were a slow, funky rendition of Taste, and a tune I had not heard until now, Knock You Down, that one was really cool. Now I’m really looking forward to their next project.
