Posted by KB on December 23, 2009
It’s hard to know what to write about the shows that really matter. I remember reading a review of a White Stripes gig once that summed it up like so: “Best. Gig. Ever.” That was published in the Sydney Morning Herald, so I have every reason to write something more, even though I don’t really want to. In the decade since their inception, and with eight major releases in that time, Animal Collective have shifted from blippy warehouse obscurists to a game changing international outfit. But it wasn’t until Merriwether Post Pavilion dropped at the start of the year that it came into plain sight for so many. The band themselves know it too, and the MPP-heavy set paid its dues to this. A lot of the crowd wouldn’t have been old enough to get into Sung Tongs – this writer barely was himself – but the shot of kaleidoscopic pop, psychedelia, and beautiful electronic noodling they got on the night should be more than enough to have anyone scouring their back catalogue. And tonight really was all about the music.
Animal Collective aren’t really the crowd interaction types, or those that would seek to draw attention to anything other than the joyous, kinaesthesic experiment they've devised as a means presenting their music live. There’s really no need for witty banter or outlandish Patrick Wolf style costuming, unless you count Geologist in all his headlamp wearing, tie-dye sporting splendour.
Reaching around for a highlight is tough, in a set as fluid as the one I saw it’s a mean order to have to pull it apart, as if anything could stand out from such an overwhelming whole. Meanwhile, I was busy: sweat-soaked and in fairly constant movement, juggling drinks and trying vainly to tap the set list into my phone. It wasn’t until somewhere into the ten-minute jam that intermitted the two halves of their avowed classic ‘Fireworks’, that I was able to take some stock. Prior to that we’d been hit with ‘My Girls’, ‘Summertime Clothes’, and an almost dubstep take of ‘Who Could Win a Rabbit?’ But it was the return into the second chorus of ‘Fireworks’ that provided the euphoric moment on a night of sustained euphoria.
Repeat after me: sustained euphoria.
animal collective, enmore theatre