Animal Collective – Brixton Academy, London, 20/08/09

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The last time I caught Animal Collective was at Koko and to say that show was a disappointment would be an understatement. Merriweather Post Pavillion was still fresh off the boat but they seemed to be going through the motions that chilly evening in January and it didn’t really quite take off. My friend who saw them at The Forum said it wasn’t much better (Infact, she told me she even wrote a letter of complaint to the venue regarding the awful sound quality! No lie). Tonight’s show would hopefully redeem all though. And sure, Brixton may indicate a band hitting the big time and forever performing in large soulless venues, but the slanted audience floor means even if you’re at the back, you’re always likely to get a decent view of what’s going on. Unless you’re tiny. In which case, you’ve got problems.

They had a huge backdrop of the Merriweather Post Pavilion album cover behind them and a big massive giant white sphere hanging from the ceiling at the front, middle of the stage with lights reflecting off it making it do really crazy looking optical illusions. It looked pretty darn cool.

They take to the stage around 9ish and begin with some soothing atmospheric drone which seeps into a new song. It sounds exquisite. I need to know it and live with it. Then, as if out of nowhere, they drop ‘My Girls’ and the crowd goes wild. I think it comes a bit too early though. Panda Bear’s now apparent indie-anthem of “I don’t mean to seem like I care about material things – like a social status! I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls!”. I heard it being sung an awful lot beforehand, even by myself, and live it sounds particularly stirring but it just doesn’t feel right. Peppered in-between more lovely new songs which I don’t know are ‘Leaf House’ with its extended “There’s no one, no one, no one, no one!” outro (which never fails to get me wanting to bawl like a quadra-spazzed orphan every single time) and ‘Summertime Clothes’, gets a rousing response. I actually thought for a split second it was infact ‘For Reverend Green’ when I heard the first few notes. And I got a little bit too excited I must confess, especially when I turned to my friend and yelled “Oh my fucking god, it’s For Reverend Green”. Tsk. Hey, they start similar alright… Listen for your self!

So after ‘Summertime Clothes’ (which definitely wasn’t ‘For Reverend Green’) they drop ‘Fireworks’ which was utterly dazzling. Y’know, I don’t think I’ve heard so many people trying to impersonate a high pitch falsetto in an out-of-tune union in my life. And then after that, quite unfortunately, it all seems to tail off. Sure, ‘Brothersport’ gets every one bopping up and down like a lunatic overdosed on way too much Sunny D. Avey Tare’s infectious refrain of “Open up / open up / open up your throat!” works perfectly as the soundtrack of some early morning rave from 1991 but ‘Lion In A Coma’ feels misplaced and the poor excuse of an encore was entirely forgettable. “Well that was just a big bag of a dirgy nothingness” my friend says. It was a shame. A strange anti-climax feel takes over which meant the show ended more on a whimper than a bang. I don’t think my friend will be writing a letter of complaint, but it’s something we probably could’ve done without. Solid, but by no means the best they’ll ever play. Still, enough there to make me go back wanting more.