Dublin Opinion

Last night at the Animal Collective gig, amidst the first couple of blistering, electro-heavy tracks that blended into an intriguing wall of noise, Jim asked me if I was going to write a review of the gig.

‘Nah’, I said, ‘I was going to but Nialler9 is probably going to write one and his would be much better’. And so it came to pass:

“With the stage flanked by two dressed-up skeletons, the three members took to the stage in relative darkness and the first strains of “Loch Raven” became apparent. It was an extended version of the song, extended maybe by four times in length, with plenty of drone and echoed noise backing up the disquieted singing of Panda Bear with Avey tutting into a microphone behind him. For the next fifty minutes or so, the show continued with these drone-based noise compositions compounded by only Panda Bear’s lone singing over them. The comparisons to Brian Wilson’s voice are flattering and showed a ring of truth last night, though occasionally his voice faltered slightly in the mix. The songs were all loop-based compositions in the vein of “#1? from Strawberry Jam and the crowd could do nothing but let it wash over them and enjoy the strip lighting show coming from the stage.”

With my usual panache and well-honed style I arrived late at the gig, so when we got in they’d been on stage for about 15 minutes. Of course, the story of the night was that Avey, him who normally does the singing, wasn’t. Although I have to admit, having no expectations I didn’t really notice until Brian Weitz explained that Avey had the flu. Which is bad enough, but then Weitz told us that when in Manchester someone smashed the windscreen of their van, so they had to drive to the boat with a full head of wind blowing in their faces.

‘Rock and Roll sucks’ Avey no doubt croaked when they finally arrived in Dublin. Listening to Animal Collective last night reminded me of what I’d often thought about 12 inche remixes in the 80s and 90s. They were usually nothing more than a pointless extension to a dreary 9 or 10 minutes of what had originally been a punchy three minute pop song, using whatever effects buttons had been provided with the spanking new mixing desk bought by the studio. But the big difference is that AC weren’t simply trying to get mileage out of a popular riff but were more interested in creating a new kind of sound with their modifications and tweaks. Indeed, when it got into its groove had heads bobbing together - a bit like an undulating wave of measured metronomic nods.

When Weitz mentioned that Noah Lennox was going to play some songs off his Panda Bear Person’s Pitch album there was an appreciative roar from the audience up front. Despite this though there was a definite falling off of interest with the audience in general. Many people around me started chatting or just trickled out. Which is weird because I imagined that the Panda Bear tracks would have been more popular. As it happened, Lennox only played a couple of tracks from Person’s Pitch before leaving himself and there was a definite deflated air about the whole thing.

It’s a pity as this was the first gig I’d been too in many months and I’d been seriously looking forward to it. But there was nothing that could be done. Nothing except head back to the bar and get drunk. And now I’ve a hangover. Thanks Animal Collective. Rock and Roll sucks.

Pic courtesty of Loreana. You can find the rest of them here.