Collected Animals

Philly show tonight was great. Hey Bog fucking slays live, works way better than on the album imo. The bridge in Lips at Night sounded wild too.

Just weird that he’s only played 2 new songs so far and has only really been playing either one or the other every other show, the new stuff is always what I look forward to with their live shows

mystical

rally song is so good... this is top tier avey

invisible darlings

yeah it's amazing, love hearing him sing those lines in the bridge more clearly, instead of being kind of buried in the studio version. The thing I'm obsessed with currently though is live The Musical, especially after seeing him a couple days ago. The moment the guitar solo section hits is just transcendent, pure endorphin rush. If he was coming anywhere near me again this tour I would definitely go back for seconds.

I guess it's because I'm getting increasingly crotchety about this kind of thing with age, but I get irrationally annoyed and distracted at over-talkative and noisy crowds, and damn, that was a noisy crowd. It was cool because it seemed like everyone in the room was super familiar with his music, singing along to even the songs from 7s. But they were so damn noisy, people were just talking the entire show - it kind of ruined the acoustic section with Ms Secret and Coral Lords.

But! Avey sounded amazing. The 7s songs really take on a new life live. Hey Bog was particularly amazing, and the spaced-out version of Invisible Darlings was really sweet, it reminded me of pullhair rubeye. It kinda seemed like he was having gear issues, like there was an issue with the Digitakt's midi clock or something - some of the beats sounded like the tempo was fluctuating and he was struggling to land on it the right way, but he powered through. idk how many people noticed realistically, but I just pay close attention to the gear stuff. Neurons was insane, particularly with the slightly messed-up tempo, it sounded really chaotic and ramshackle in a cool way.

Also, Avey was dancing way more than he used to. Very physical performance, a lot of fun to watch

Midnight Special and the acoustic stuff. I feel like MS could have been a Feels era track or something almost, never really got to see him or AC in that mode so I loved it. It's cool how different a lot of 7s songs sound from the record already, mostly makes me excited about future AC stuff more than anything. Chocolate Girl rework didn't really do it for me, backing track sounded too much like a ringtone or video game or something. Overall a good show and fun time.

i thought the sound at market hotel was pretty rough .... in that "we have a nice system" but the space & way it's being used aren't exactly optimized kinda way. like, the bass is immensely, absurdly loud ... and there are extreme high frequencies but the places where tonal definition is important are kinda lost and muddy. watching some of the videos from other shows on the tour, i was able to hear a lot of subtlety and texture in the accompaniment he'd programmed that was lost and felt bludgeon-y in BK. i honestly couldn't even discern the chord changes in neurons lol i was like "man he's getting REALLY out on this arrangement." when the sound is like that with any kind of electronics & live instrumentation (ie. vocals, guitar, etc.) set, i feel like that flatness can make the electronics sound like "a backing track" and kinda lack dynamics ... rather than feeling like immersive and living elements of a composition. fwiw, tho, my earplugs are pretty wack ... and i was standing in a couple different rear corners of the room ... so maybe it sounded better closer to the stage.

that said, the things that were less accompanied - like the first tune - really had more of a chance breathing through that system. that borderline sleng teng / kinda dancehall bassline on "chocolate girl" really worked in this context, though. (but lol at opposite field's read of it being like a ringtone; i can see what you mean.)

re: the comments on the crowd noise, i think an nyc show on a friday / saturday night can be a tough go for any kind of thoughtful listening (outside of, say, playing at a place like Issue or Blank Forms or some kinda gallery space with chairs ... or, like, National Sawdust or something.) like people are out and want to party which is totally a legit desire ... but it's tough when that intersects with a hope for getting to do some deep listening. i remember going to see drew mcdowall from coil do some extremely minimal drone / sound design at knockdown center in 2021 and the amount of noise & talking at the show was like a boiler room vibe. just kinda seemed like, people are out on a friday night for something to do ... not necessarily to listen to music. it's gotta be kind of a weird, maybe even tricky place for AT to be in ... to know that shows will be well-attended but not necessarily places where people are gonna wanna take the ride on, say, a 25-minute unreleased ambient jam. in that regard, big props to him for coming up with a set that seems to allow him to satisfy the desire to explore ... while still slam dunking some hits for sold out and energetically scattered rooms.

tldr: good show but i wish it sounded better lol

also, man, hearing him do those repeated screams on "chocolate girl" both made me cry at the notion of him triumphing over his previous lost voices ... but also made me worry for his vocal cords. hoping the cancellations this week aren't related.

I can echo some thoughts about the sound of the venue, but first the way i got there was pretty spontaneous hehe and sick. a friend i met at the last avey tare show at market hotel (2019!) hit me up and said he had free tickets, and i got there when the bog started. i really like market hotel but it seems like this go around the speakers bass was all fucked up and blown out, whne last time it sounded good all things considered. a lot of youngins talking about random shit but it seemed like the crowd really got into it at some points. neurons was really a weird one because the pa system really struggled with the high end of that song during the verse, but atleast the chorus sounded good. i imagine closer to the stage it was kinda grating. i really found that ghost of books stole the show, that song sounded great, and i really enjoyed saturdays and chocolate girl. why the fuck did he change to touch your little hands to free the land of light? hehehe. all in all was a good show, and loved his weird ass dance moves but def understand what ppl are saying abt the sound being a little tough and the crowd noise,,, ppl were chatting!!!