SonicMonks

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of theirs and bought the ticket mainly because it rarely happens that a band so famous and influential comes to Estonia. All our biggest newspapers published long interviews with band members (EPL, PM, EE) and that forthcoming event seemed to be important enough to touch everyone's heart around here. So it came to me as a surprise, when I heard that a week before the concert about 300 tickets out of 800 weren't sold yet.
Anyway, about the concert itself now. During the warm-up (Pia Fraus) only some brave young lads with cameras dared to near the stage, everyone else kept a very safe distance and acted extremely shyly. Situation changed at 10 PM when Animal Collective began with their gig. What I saw, was something hysterical, psychedelic and improvisation-like (although they rarely improvise actually), yet well-planned and that had a direct influence on the previously timid audience. Since at least half of the songs performed were said to be new and even the already known ones weren't very easy to follow for me, it went beyond my comprehension a few times. I wondered how it would sound if I would've been drunk or high, because even though I was completely sober, I felt kind of half-conscious or half-asleep. It just sounded so unreal at times. I must admit that since the beginning of the concert I secretly waited for "The Purple Bottle" and when at last they played that...well, it gave me a sense of enormous well-being :) The end of the show came very suddenly and I was surprised how come these 110 minutes had passed so fast.
Not exactly an informative review, but it probably takes time for me to understand what it was that I saw and heard yesterday. Maybe it'll be like with The Mars Volta's concert at Provinssirock last year - I didn't know much about them, but their perfomance astouned me and at last their music grew on me. I believe the same will happen with Animal Collective, they're sure worth the effort.

Animal Collective at FatCat Records
Animal Collective at myspace

Animal Collective - Leaf House