My introduction to Animal Collective came in January 2006 in the Glasgow hotel room of Be Your Own Pet. The band Good Shoes was also collected around the two beds alongside me and BYOP’s Jonas, Jamin, Nathan, and Nathan’s laptop. The night/morning was a mixture of Ariel Pink and Adrian Orange and then along came Animal Collective. Oh, yes! My exposure to them ended at 4 am that morning when I trekked back to my flat and then a couple hours later off to work with no sleep. They came my way again at the Roseland on Sunday when they took to the stage decorated with glow-in-the-dark skeletons a bit before than their billed start time of 10:30 pm.

I admittedly wasn’t that well versed in the ways of Animal Collective, or rather, the band’s music, before their Roseland show. I knew it had core members that played some gigs and sat out others, mostly due to outside commitments (as was the case when the band played as a trio as opposed to a jam-covered quartet for their Rose City date). I knew they were often bathed in little light onstage and that they made their way to the UK far more than they do to the Northwest. But their music…much of what I’d heard in the hotel room had escaped my memory and aside from a few critics’ sound bites…I didn’t have too clear of a window into it when I arrived.

At the show, I noted the impossibility, at least for me, to tell a good portion of their songs apart. I wondered how and if those around me could. But the concert wasn’t about that—it seemed to be about everything in-between. It was less about what was happening onstage and more about what was happening, period.

As I stood crammed against the stage amongst many smiling and dancing teens I was stuck by many things—one being the community that is so rallied around them, but that was apparent beforehand when I was merely holding conversation downstairs. Down towards the bathroom a red winged woman made her way, only to be closely followed by a man in black and white with enough face-paint to out-do a clown. I was immediately perplexed—how was it possible that this crowd would out-random the cowboys, drag queens, and small children at a Scissor Sisters show? Then it was pointed out to me that these people were dressed as animals! How ingenious! And there wasn’t only a handful! A tour upstairs could reveal several more representing the different species of the animal kingdom.

The pit in front of the stage had an atmosphere I’ve not regularly encountered. As I tried to make my way into the thick of it all from the edge a few songs in, a few people parted to let a couple of girls through, who in turn grabbed my hand to pull me along for their journey. As we pushed toward the center, several arms arrived to pat us on the back and tap our shoulders—not because they were annoyed we were taking their spots, but in a way to just say “hey!”—all those around me stood absorbed in the world Animal Collective’s sounds were creating for all of us in the venue. Not enough concerts do that. You could be anywhere you wanted to be in the noise from the stage, and for everyone at this show it was right there.

While I can’t tell you what songs they played, I can say that the words music and concert would quite possibly be selling-short what Animal Collective purveyed on Sunday. It was an evening with a vibe all it’s own for a class of crowd completely unique.

Links:
Animal Collective

Photos by Nilina Mason-Campbell