Animal Collective at the Hollywood Bowl

Took a while  to get to this since I was busy the past week with AMAZING, unreviewable shows by Ewox, the Darflers, Sunfighter, Super River, the Spencer Owen Limited, The Midnite Snackers, The Buttgays, Spacehook, and an all-star group featuring myself, Kathryne Dameron, Alex Heerman,  Miles Marsico, Alex Halitsis, Theresa Rife, and Danielle Peña.

So then the weekend before...

I didn't catch all of the first act, Huun Huur Tu, but what I saw was pretty incredible.  The Central Asian group had a droning sound  that mixed traditional music with the  future.  It was very easy to see why the members of the headlining group like them so much.  The first song featured an electronics guest we nicknamed "DJ Barack Obama" because of his appearance.  That part was real cool, but the rest of the set was no less future-oriented.

Flying Lotus is an artist that doesn't make my kind of music.  Despite this I like most of what I had  heard prior to the set, so my expectations were sort of high.  I don't think he's really ideal for such a large venue, and I am certain I would have enjoyed his set much more in a smaller, more danceable venue.  It had some really cool moments, but I found there to be too many dramatic changes, especially in the way of getting a groove going.  Some of his bass sounds were linked to use of ecstasy, so as a drony bass player that turned me off ever trying that drug.  That's the trouble with most new electronic music.  However, his talent is evident, and as a local it was exciting to see him play the Bowl for the first time.  His light show was quite good at times too, perhaps even more consistently than the headliner's.

If you can believe it, this was the first time I had seen Animal Collective after many years of being a fan.  I instantly regretted all the times I missed out on them in smaller venues, but this show had its own set of privileges.  You will seldom get the chance to see this band with such a familiar set list.  There was only one new song, which I can't really remember.  Most of the new record was played, and my appreciation for it grew, though not to the level of the previous four.  Of those songs "Applesauce," "New Town Burnout" and the Deakin-sang "Wide Eyed" were the standouts.  Their older material was represented better than I would have expected, particularly from Merriweather.  The set opened with "Also Frightened" and not surprisingly "My Girls" was a major standout, but not as much as "Brother Sport" which also had the best light show.  They dug out not only "Peacebone" (which sadly was brought down by the barely-believably obnoxious kids behind us), but also "Cobwebs."

I was glad to have Deakin onstage for my first Animal Collective show.  His contributions on the Merriweather material was perfect, adding more to the arrangement without attracting any specific attention.  Likewise, the shift to him on lead vocals made things flow even better.  He played electronic percussion about as much as electric guitar.  Other members (not Geologist of course) surprised me with their set-ups as well.  Panda sat at a kit, though one far from traditional and very visible.  However, he was seated the whole time.  Avey wasn't close behind in that aspect.  I had  never thought of him as a keyboard player, but he was on them at least half the time, always seated, in addition to electric guitar.

As expected it was a near-perfect show, the only complaints I could give are the size of the venue and that there was too much sitting, both from the band and the audience.