Animal Collective

I need to visit more British cities to be completely sure about this next statement, but I'm pretty sure Glasgow is the coolest British city.  It just oozes cool.  Particularly music cool.  Some of my favourite bands are Glaswegian and I geeked out a little when I was up there for this Animal Collective gig.  I flew from London up to Glasgow for it, and it was the last of the four gigathon gigs.  By this point my brain was pretty much in shreds, and for once my body was less tired than my mind.  The other three gigs had blown my mind out of the water and I had built the AC gig up to be the pinnacle.  I was extremely excited to see them live.  My adoration of AC went from zero (i.e.. unaware of their music) to hundred (in love with their music) really quickly, and I am super keen on the new album.  (I know not all AC fans are, but I really like this direction.  I like its confidence, and the sound is so clearly theirs.)

Like I said, I'd really built up this gig in my mind and was beyond excited for it.  I'll just say it now; I wasn't disappointed.  I loved every second.  I was really lucky that again I managed to be right up at the front.  (My photos are all bitty because I was too close to get everything in one shot!)

The vast majority of AC's set was Centipede Hz stuff.  This is one really tight knit group, and for such (at times) dense sound structures they are so in tune to each other.  You'd expect this from a band anyway, but you don't always get it and it can ruin the sound completely.  Here you are carried away by how in sync they are...it's incredible.

Visually this was a really incredible show.  The set demanded your attention, but wasn't overwhelming and totally complemented the sound.  I remember the first time I really listened to AC, it was probably Merriweather Post Pavilion, and I just kept thinking "this is so good I almost feel like I can't understand it" and "where the hell did they get this sort of sound from?"  Seeing them live I definitely still had these thoughts as they were doing their thing, but I felt like I started to understand more where it comes from.  These are guys who push their love and understanding of music to the edge and all components come together in one immeasurable burst of...of....something I can't define.  All I do know is that I adore it, and I adored what I saw on stage.  A band that can make so many different sounds (and sometimes sounds that seem bizarre and alien to the norm) be so natural and wonderfully easy to listen to is a band I rate.

I definitely heart Animal Collective.

(Cue awful quality iphone photos, and lots of them)