Animal Collective

Wizard Prison
Eric Copeland (of Black Dice)

Music Box - September 18, 2007

Live Review by Alexis Roberts

Animal Collective had no problem selling out the Music Box @ Henry Fonda on a Tuesday night, so I congratulate them. On my way in I was asked a ton of times if I had an extra ticket - which I didn’t - but anyone who did have an extra ticket could have made a small fortune off of it. Even at 8:45 pm, right before the opening act began, there were already a lot of people pressed up against the stage.

Eric Copeland of Black Dice was the first act. He plays weird noise all hunched over and in a baseball cap so that you can’t see his face. His music is very surreal sounding and a bit scary to be completely honest, particularly at loud volumes. It sounds like you’re listening to techno music while being drowned and having a nightmare all at the same time. A lot of people were not into it, which is understandable because it kind of takes a certain type of appreciation for that that type of thing to really get into it. His set was unusually long for an opening act (over 45 minutes!)

Another weird-ass band called Wizard Prison played next. They did their entire set behind some type of screen so that you couldn’t see them. All you could see was hooded silhouetted figures and some outlandish disco lights. Their music was equally as strange and as Eric Copeland, neither of them are exactly what you could call easy listening or user-friendly. They had so much bass in several of their songs that the venue floor was shaking like an earthquake. I was ultimately unimpressed and a little terrified at the same time. I don’t know if Wizard Prison has have ever heard Godspeedyou!blackemperor but I have a sneaking suspicion that they have. They might want to make sure that GY!BE doesn’t find out how badly they are ripping them off because I heard that those Canadians will get crazy over stuff like that. Show your faces and own up to the music that you are creating! Hiding behind a wall of fishnet stockings is not a good image, neither is the cult like hooded motif. You’re just creeping everyone out, show yourselves already

So in between the Wizard Prison madness and Animal Collective the amount of people on the ground level probably tripled and the smell of marijuana was thick in the air, which was heavy with the humidity of too many humans being in one place. It was pretty disgusting. I didn’t know that Animal Collective was the kind of band that you were supposed to enjoy while inebriated, so I suppose that I have been in the dark all of this time. I also didn’t know that you were supposed to mosh to bands like Animal Collective but I guess that is another thing that I was unaware of (until the second they started playing and I got caught up in a sweaty pile of dreadlocks).

To celebrate Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective played a number of new songs. They gave a taste of everything, though, not neglecting the older songs in their catalog. The beauty in that is that their music now (as opposed to a couple of years ago) isn’t dramatically different from what their newer CDs sound like. It’s rather easy to appreciate all of what they do whether you are an old school fan, a newbie or someone who has never heard a song by them before. I had heard a few rumors prior to attending that they weren’t as good live as they are on the album, but I beg to differ. The albums are great, but when you see them play live you really get to feel the music and gain a sense of who Animal Collective is. You get to see how all of the unique sounds and effects come together to create what you’re hearing on the record and it all makes perfect sense. The entire set was so dreamlike and beautiful as the four men of Animal Collective floated around the stage and the crowd swayed to and fro along to the music. It was lit beautifully in shades of blue and purple and their own stage lights flickered in the background only adding to the wistful quality of the show. The worst part of this performance? Waking up.