Animal Collective
Live at Irish Centre on Monday, 5th November 2007
Light being faster than sound, the first thing that hit me as I descended from the (quite expensive!) bar was a blinding light, pulsating from the stage. A moment before I started considering whether or not I was dead and beginning my ascent to a higher plane, the wall of sound hit me, and I really did start flying. It's difficult to describe what was going on, on the packed dance floor, but it was definitely not what you'd expect to find in one of the more out of the way bars in Leeds, or even on this planet.
Their opening song was a throbbing, pulsating musical masterpiece, even with some of the band struck down due to some deadly illness (possibly diarrhoea). The not-so-aptly named geologist had his helmeted head down, working the synth's like his life depended on it, sending people swaying to his wave of sound like no hypnotist ever could. Standing next to him on keyboard was band mate Panda Bear, (unfortunately not dressed as his namesake, but then again, proof you can't have everything), also sending the audience reeling with an eclectic mix of electronic noises.
The euphoria was so intense that I failed to notice any boundaries between the songs they were playing (if indeed there were any), but this only matters from my retrospective reviewer side of things. In the moment, it didn't matter one bit.
