Animal Collective - all echo and delay
Sometimes you look forward to a concert so much that you can't help getting disappointed. On the other hand you can also experience having outrageous expectations and getting them fulfilled beyond belief. That unfortunately happens seldom, but actually was the case when I saw Liars in Berlin about a month ago. The first thing happened to me two days ago in Malmo when I saw Animal Collective.
Before they went on stage we were pestered by Nix Noltes which is an islandic orchestra with that one twin from Mum. It was some kind of texmex-balkan-folk music and to be truthful not very exciting. They had decidedly boring songs with few poignant moments, and I would rather see a reel balkan-orchestra because they play in that insanely high pace and are brilliant musicians. That wasn't exactly the case with Nix Noltes.
Then it was time for Animal Collective. I had really been looking forward to this concert because they're one of the most interesting bands at the moment. But alas! They didn't seem to be in the right mood. They started off with some voice experiments that actually were pretty groovy, but from then on they spent way too much time playing their stoned out songs and halfimprovised experiments. This idea they have about making noise with a minimum of effort by using lots of echo and delay rocks like hell, but if they don't use it for making something constructive, moving, exhilarating, anything - then who gives a fuck. And Animal Collective didn't. It was mostly a bunch of art wank. When they played "Grass", they even did it at half pace which wasn't exactly swell either. There was no doubt they rocked the hardest when they played their uptempo, melodic songs. With them they made energy, rhythms and babbling vocals move themselves and the entire audience, and unfortunately only a few of their psychedelic swampsongs were capable of grasping the pleasure center in the same way.
If that wasn't enough they also played just long enough for us to miss the train so we had to wait almost an hour at a freezing cold station half past midnight to get home. Not really the perfect night I had hoped for, although it did have more than a few big moments.
Before they went on stage we were pestered by Nix Noltes which is an islandic orchestra with that one twin from Mum. It was some kind of texmex-balkan-folk music and to be truthful not very exciting. They had decidedly boring songs with few poignant moments, and I would rather see a reel balkan-orchestra because they play in that insanely high pace and are brilliant musicians. That wasn't exactly the case with Nix Noltes.
Then it was time for Animal Collective. I had really been looking forward to this concert because they're one of the most interesting bands at the moment. But alas! They didn't seem to be in the right mood. They started off with some voice experiments that actually were pretty groovy, but from then on they spent way too much time playing their stoned out songs and halfimprovised experiments. This idea they have about making noise with a minimum of effort by using lots of echo and delay rocks like hell, but if they don't use it for making something constructive, moving, exhilarating, anything - then who gives a fuck. And Animal Collective didn't. It was mostly a bunch of art wank. When they played "Grass", they even did it at half pace which wasn't exactly swell either. There was no doubt they rocked the hardest when they played their uptempo, melodic songs. With them they made energy, rhythms and babbling vocals move themselves and the entire audience, and unfortunately only a few of their psychedelic swampsongs were capable of grasping the pleasure center in the same way.
If that wasn't enough they also played just long enough for us to miss the train so we had to wait almost an hour at a freezing cold station half past midnight to get home. Not really the perfect night I had hoped for, although it did have more than a few big moments.
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