Animal Collective has always stuck to the fringes of mainstream music, even when experiencing a massive surge of popularity about a decade ago following the release of their most pop-oriented material to that date, Strawberry Jam. Their freak folk style of pop was quickly digested by the masses, but Animal Collective kept pursuing their bizarre artistic vision. Now far removed from those halcyon days, they are still as true to themselves as ever, putting on an anniversary tour for diehard fans exclusively, which stopped in Austin at the Paramount Theatre on Monday, July 23.
The historic Paramount was the perfect venue for this type of show. On a dimly lit stage, Animal Collective members Avey Tare and Panda Bear quietly took their seats and strummed away on acoustic guitars as hundreds filled their seats in the performance hall. This tour was specifically designed to focus on their 2004 breakthrough album Sung Tongs, which they performed in its entirety, and a few select other early songs. There would be no “Fireworks” or “My Girls” on this stage.
That creates an iffy proposition. Animal Collective have obviously never cared too much about what anyone thinks of them, so if anyone was disappointed to not hear their poppier material, they probably didn’t think much of it. But this was a show for those who know, and those who knew were enthralled with the experience of the hour long performance of Sung Tongs. Monotonous strumming and meditative crooning shapes almost all the material on the album, and it created a hypnotic, transcendent atmosphere for the intimate show. For early adopters of the band, it was probably something they never imagined seeing on stage again and readily lapped up.
Ultimately, Animal Collective’s performance may have skewed obscure, but for the open minded, it was much like an out of body experience. One could easily lose themselves in the winding passages of songs like “Good Lovin Outside” and the upbeat freakouts of “Who Could Win a Rabbit?” and “We Tigers.” At other times, when lyrics were sung, it was a dulcet, almost dream-like atmosphere as Avey Tare’s lilting voice carried the listeners on a journey through forests and winter wonderlands. Such imagery is evoked not just by the lyrics, but by the tones of the songs themselves. Imagination takes over in such a setting and one might as well be experiencing a good mushroom trip listening to the Collective play.
On Monday night, Animal Collective offered up a journey. It was the listener’s job to lose themselves and abandon their egos and preconceptions to follow along. In this day and age, that sort of performance is increasingly a rarity, but Animal Collective have always cut against the grain, and never was this more true than when they wrote records like Sung Tongs. Though their upcoming shows may return to the more pop-oriented tones of records like Centipede Hz and Merriweather Post Pavilion, Monday’s show was a welcome return to a more experimental, atmospheric, and evocative sound from the band.
