Fireworks

In Portland over the long weekend, I got to see Animal Collective at the Roseland Theater. I've never seen them before, and I was really looking forward to it.

I've never seen the place so packed. Tim and I ended up in the balcony area (there's beer there) along one side leaning against the brick wall behind the rows of seats, all full. Turned out to be a pretty good spot, as we could see everything and had access to the bar.

The show was amazing. Unfortunately, we missed the opener Grouper, which I was excited about, but we'd soon be placated by the enormous weirdness of the AC. They played a good bunch of new stuff (My Girls, Summertime Clothes, Lion In a Coma) along with some older stuff that I didn't recognize.

They also hit a lot of highpoints in between, often in roundabout ways, bleeding out of one song into a freaky breakdown that was suddenly another song. One such segue led to the night's highpoint. Fireworks, off Strawberry Jam, was for me the transcendent moment of the night, the galloping intro beat (which on the record starts at the end of For Reverend Green, which I was praying for but didn't get to hear) arising out of the noise, soft lyrics slowly clarifying out of the haze.

The whole night was cut a bit short, as Avey Tare was having ear problems and they didn't want to do an encore without him. The crowd, lovestruck as they were, were upset but took it well. And I wandered home through the lovely nighttime streets of Portland.