Animal Collective: The Granada Theater

I was a party to two conversations at the Granada on Saturday night that helped hammer home just how strange the phenomenon of Animal Collective really is. The first occurred some time in the middle of Sir Richard Bishop's set, when my friend turned 360 degrees and remarked "shit, there are a shitload of people here." And he was right. The rather large Granada Theater (with a capacity of roughly 1200) was probably more than 3/4 full (of mostly young hipsters) at 9pm, as a bearded middle aged man with an acoustic guitar sat onstage playing quiet, meandering Indian instrumental pieces.

The second conversation occurred during the middle of Animal Collective's overpowering set, when another friend turned to me and said, "I'm pretty disappointed with this so far." When I asked why, she explained that she was expecting something a little more straight forward, adding that they hadn't even played one of their "real songs" yet. And she was also right. Those whose love of Animal Collective is based mostly on 2005's Feels, as well as those who had never heard anything about AC's live M.O. before attending the show, were probably expecting something much different than they got on Saturday night. Aside from a somewhat tossed off version of "Leaf House" and a couple Panda Bear tracks that you may or may not have heard before, Animal Collective played entirely new material on Saturday, and according to some rumors, they might have even improvised most of the set due to equipment failure in Marfra the night before. The music was strange, new, and rather experimental, and there's no telling exactly why they decided to structure their set the way they did.

But whatever the reason, the music they performed at the Granada had more in common with Einsturzende Neubauten and Kraftwerk than Modest Mouse, and the prospect of such a band attracting a near capacity crowd at a large venue and keeping everyone interested for a full set is quite exciting. The Granada's sound, which I've complained about at least 15 times over the past year, was powerful and clear on Saturday, and AC used it to push all kinds of boundaries with texture, rhythm and electro noise as their weapons of choice. Worlds away from the avant folk of Sung Tongs or the warmer shades of Feels, Animal Collective's pieces were colder, more beat heavy and electronic than most of their recorded material, and the band relied on distorted noise build ups and sudden bursts of coherent bass and drum beats to set the audience up and knock em down like bowling pins several times throughout the set. Perhaps the most impressive thing about their collage of a set was the easy conveyance of joy that marked most of their music. Despite the loose structures of their pieces and the somewhat disorienting nature of the sounds they utilized, it was clear throughout that the band was having fun, not taking themselves too seriously, and well aware of the fact that most in the crowd were eating it up. The peak of the set came towards the end when the band began banging on live drums, sending the crowd into a frenzy and highlighting the power of their trance inducing rhythms and hyperactive craftsmanship.

Of course, I've seen some great experimental electronic sets this year, but what put AC's show over the top wasn't just the performance, but the reaction of the crowd. To see over 1,000 people cheer wildly for such adventurous music was very pleasing, and anyone in attendance who doubts whether an audience for this kind of music exists in Dallas (guilty as charged) was probably forced to rethink their position. I was sure this was the best show I'd seen all year about half way through the set, but what was so great was the crowd's roaring applause at the end, signaling that hundreds of people who might not have got what they bargained for apparently agreed with me.