Animal Collective, Webster Hall, 3.23.06

I had been looking forward to this show for a while; it was sort of the centerpiece of the week. I love Feels, and I was expecting some Arcade Fire-esque eccentricity in this show. I got it, but not from Animal Collective...

I don't know the name of the first opener, but I texted D from the show my entire review of their set: "First opener = boooring."



The next band came on with 10 players of various instruments--a banjo, a tuba, a trombone, a trumpet, a cello, et al.--and I thought, wow, I didn't realize there were so many people in Animal Collective. I have the feeling I wasn't the only confused idiot in the crowd, though, judging by the murmurs I heard after their adorable cellist introduced them as Storsveit Nix Nolte, your standard 9-to-12-piece Icelandic gypsy band. Yawn. No, kidding, actually they rocked.











Animal Collective comes up next. They start playing this sort of droning, pulsing thing, as if to build up to some sort of climax that never came. The first song lasted about twenty minutes and didn't do much for me (the crowd loved it, or maybe the wild applause was like that death quiver you get just before you fall asleep). The second song sounded exactly the same, and since I have better things to do than listen to four guys shreik in a roomfull of asshole pot-heads, I walked out. What I'm trying to say here is Animal Collective sucks live. I saw them so you don't have to.