Collected Animals

Hi Everyone.

I have never really posted on here before, but have lingered silently for the last little while.

I recently took a 2 week road trip from Winnipeg Canada down to the eastern united states with the primary goal following Animal Collective up from their Charleston show, all the way to their Brooklyn show (excluding the Moogfest show), and wanted to briefly share my experiences and see if anyone else here has done a major road trip to follow them in the past.

The biggest take away from the trip was that Animal Collective fans are all awesome to hang out with. At each show, I met plenty of awesome people to talk to and I also got to meet a few people who have never seen an Animal Collective show before in Charleston and Charlottesville. Though saying how far I traveled was an easy conversation starter. I was amazed by how easy to talk to fans were at each of these shows. I had seen Animal Collective 5 times before this road trip, but each time I was either with people, or in an area closer to home where I knew people were generally friendly.

I wanted to specifically thank this one girl I met in Washington named Erika, who gave out free Panda Bear shirts she made to various fans. If your reading this, thanks a bunch. The shirt is really comfy. For those curious, its the panda with Maryland flag shirt the band used to sell, except with the flag of Portugal instead.

On to the meat of this topic though. Watching their show change over five separate concerts. It was an amazing experience in Charleston seeing the live debuts of Kinda Bonkers and Peace Maker, along with this tour's debut of Taste, Sweet Road, and the new rendition of Bees, but what really made this trip so worthwhile was seeing how these songs were experimented on night after night. Besides the constant of Sweet Road and Bees being played together, each of these new songs took on a new format to enjoy each night. Kinda Bonkers live debut opened with a syrupy-sweet keyboard intro in Charleston, yet enjoyed a much more beat focused transition in Charlottesville. By the final concert in Brooklyn, they decided to just open on it without any slow buildup for fun and a change of pace. Peace Maker meanwhile became a super adaptable song, having a different transition every night. Most notably they opened with it in Charlottesville, and sampled Spilling Guts in its intro to throw the fans off. Meanwhile old tour standards still sounded very lively, particularily Hounds of Bairro, Water Curses, and Daily Routine, which still feel like they are performing them like they are brand new. It amazes me how they don't seem to get tired of performing, especially Floridada, which night after night kept its energy amongst the four of them.

Lastly, I must thank the guys for chatting with me night after night at the bus. Mostly I thank them for remembering me from the four times I had met them beforehand, saving me to have to reintroduce myself. I appreciate that they are willing to chat with me night after night, like I am a friend rather than a fan. By the end of my short tour following them, we were no longer talking about their music, beyond light chat about how the show went, we just chatted casually, mainly about Hockey with Brian, but also about little details about life on the road, interesting sights in each city we were in, and future plans. I also have to thank Abby for chatting each night too, as well as doing their amazing visuals night after night (and throwing in some curve balls in the visuals to throw me off from guessing what song was coming on before they even start a sample from it). Lastly, I have to thank Brad 'Reverend Green' their head roadie for hooking me up with the setlist each night.

All in all it was a fantastic experience. I have much more detailed stories about the shows, who I met, and what I found out talking with the band (like the machine Noah refers to in Daily Routine being a crappy Coffee Maker he used to own) but I don't want to write a post that goes on too long.

I do want to ask though. Has anyone else here followed Animal Collective for a long string of dates far from home?

Thanks for reading

RushBoingo

P.S. in case anyone was wondering, on this road trip I also saw Hall and Oates in Chicago, Tupperware Remix Party (a Canadian Synth-Funk band) in Pittsburgh, and Ninja Sex Party (a comedy band) in Nashville and Charlotte. I had a full 9 days of non stop driving and concerts.

AWESOME story! Would love to hear more details about each show and the experience. I have always wanted to do something like this and I think AnCo would be the perfect band to do it with.

Hey RushBoingo. Cool story dude. I think I met you outside the 930 Club show. I remember you got a picture with Avey and Panda. I was the dude smoking weed if that helps. If I remember correct, you were telling me about some of the comedy shows you saw. A friend and I were also road tripping around the east coast and a little south following AC around this tour. Good times.

same as above, would LOVE to do this! thanks for posting your story, this is great stuff and really cool to hear about AC fans rocking everywhere. That's been my experience, even though I 've only seen them in 3 different cities.

would really appreciate you sharing any more details that the guys shared about their jams, especially any future plans that you might have talked about with them.

also, the setlists would be cool to see and I'm sure JFW would be into that at the very least for the All Known Recordings thread.

I'm into long posts, especially about this kind of stuff, so please share any more details you have in general!

I was the dude smoking weed if that helps.

Haha

same as above, would LOVE to do this! thanks for posting your story, this is great stuff and really cool to hear about AC fans rocking everywhere. That's been my experience, even though I 've only seen them in 3 different cities.

would really appreciate you sharing any more details that the guys shared about their jams, especially any future plans that you might have talked about with them.

also, the setlists would be cool to see and I'm sure JFW would be into that at the very least for the All Known Recordings thread.

I'm into long posts, especially about this kind of stuff, so please share any more details you have in general!

I recorded a couple videos from the shows if you wanted to hear an idea of what they sounded like on the tour- https://youtu.be/s-xonK4bLEE

I'm sure someone got the setlists put up on setlist.fm.

I did also see how they would jam the songs differently at different shows. There's a bit of a free form feeling to the songs even when they're playing the same ones from another show sometimes.

Oh man, that's such a cool experience. I've always wanted to do something like that, I'm super jealous. I'd love to hear more details, keep posting!

Hi again everyone. Thanks for the warm responses. I'm not really in a physical place to really type a lot about the details everyone is asking about, but since the interest is so high, I can elaborate on what future plans means.

First off, when I said future plans, I was partially talking about my future plans and sharing them with the guys. I have gotten to know each of them over 9 of the 10 concerts I have seen them at, to the point where even after 7 months of not seeing each other, they instantly would recognise me. I also have gotten to know them well enough that they let me write their Fargo ND set back in October (that's a story for another time). Mostly though, they knew me for two things, coming from (and possibly their biggest fan from) Winnipeg, and having worked at, and planning to work again at Disney World. Dave is a huge fan of Disney parks, and Brian is relatively interested in it too, so they over time have liked hearing bits and pieces of my work there, and updates on when I will be working with them again (they thought when I appeared out of nowhere in South Carolina for the first show of this tour that I drove up from Florida rather than down from Winnipeg).

Moving on to their actual future plans though, I got very different but picture forming clues from each of them. Essentially, both Dave and Noah are in the planning stages of new solo albums again. Dave was very passive, just saying that he always has stuff ready to record more or less. He seemed to always be more interested in talking about current stuff than what is to come. Brian elaborated though that once all the touring wraps up that he will go back to life as a dad for a while Dave and Noah both work on their next solo stuff (which confirmed that Dave has something coming soon).

Noah was very open to talk about his small plans. He actually has two small collections of music ready to record (or possibly even recorded already). He said collections because its fuzzy on whether they are considered albums or just EPs, because they are both just under 30 minutes. Granted he said, its longer than a standard EP, but then again, it feels similar in length to Fall Be Kind. He said at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to him, and will let the record company decide how to best market it (Two EPs on one CD, two separate albums, etc). He does plan to tour with it sooner than later though. After the summer Painting With Shows wrap up, he will take the fall off, and then hit the road in the winter to promote the new stuff. He didn't say specifically, but it seems that at least part of the tour will take place before the new mini-albums come out. Apparently in terms of the two albums content, they both are going to be musically similar. He said directly that they were very electronic and kinda poppy, and seemed to imply it would be like a introverted, slightly calmer continuation of Painting With, but there will be variety to the sound.

As I write this last paragraph, this feels like something I should put in a separate post, but hopefully enough people read it here.

I will update with more stories later at some point

Hey RushBoingo. Cool story dude. I think I met you outside the 930 Club show. I remember you got a picture with Avey and Panda. I was the dude smoking weed if that helps. If I remember correct, you were telling me about some of the comedy shows you saw. A friend and I were also road tripping around the east coast and a little south following AC around this tour. Good times.

The guy smoking weed huh, that rings an entire set of bells. More directly I remember a guy smoking weed through a classic looking pipe. If that was you, then yes we did meet. Yeah, the comedy shows I saw were for Ninja Sex Party, which is an awesome band that is best known for their crazy music videos. This tour was to see Animal Collective first, but Ninja Sex Party is probably my second favourite band to hear see live just because of how energetic they are (and don't get me started on how enthusiastic the crowd is). They served as a fantastic counterpoint show for this tour. See Animal Collective to enjoy fantastic visuals and stimulating improvised music transitions with enough energy to keep your attention, then switch over to Ninja Sex Party for an all out energy fest of a concert that has you alternating between cheering and laughing.

What other shows did you see for them on this tour?

Thanks for those deets man, sounds cool. I think you posted the Fargo set list story in the subreddit?

Awesome story! Thanks for sharing Rush!

Panda planning on touring in Winter is great news!

xelaetaks wrote:

What other shows did you see for them on this tour?

We started in Virginia I think then Washington, NY, Massachusetts and Connecticut. So I guess a little south and then around the east coast.

Hi again everyone. Thanks for the warm responses. I'm not really in a physical place to really type a lot about the details everyone is asking about, but since the interest is so high, I can elaborate on what future plans means.

First off, when I said future plans, I was partially talking about my future plans and sharing them with the guys. I have gotten to know each of them over 9 of the 10 concerts I have seen them at, to the point where even after 7 months of not seeing each other, they instantly would recognise me. I also have gotten to know them well enough that they let me write their Fargo ND set back in October (that's a story for another time). Mostly though, they knew me for two things, coming from (and possibly their biggest fan from) Winnipeg, and having worked at, and planning to work again at Disney World. Dave is a huge fan of Disney parks, and Brian is relatively interested in it too, so they over time have liked hearing bits and pieces of my work there, and updates on when I will be working with them again (they thought when I appeared out of nowhere in South Carolina for the first show of this tour that I drove up from Florida rather than down from Winnipeg).

Moving on to their actual future plans though, I got very different but picture forming clues from each of them. Essentially, both Dave and Noah are in the planning stages of new solo albums again. Dave was very passive, just saying that he always has stuff ready to record more or less. He seemed to always be more interested in talking about current stuff than what is to come. Brian elaborated though that once all the touring wraps up that he will go back to life as a dad for a while Dave and Noah both work on their next solo stuff (which confirmed that Dave has something coming soon).

Noah was very open to talk about his small plans. He actually has two small collections of music ready to record (or possibly even recorded already). He said collections because its fuzzy on whether they are considered albums or just EPs, because they are both just under 30 minutes. Granted he said, its longer than a standard EP, but then again, it feels similar in length to Fall Be Kind. He said at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to him, and will let the record company decide how to best market it (Two EPs on one CD, two separate albums, etc). He does plan to tour with it sooner than later though. After the summer Painting With Shows wrap up, he will take the fall off, and then hit the road in the winter to promote the new stuff. He didn't say specifically, but it seems that at least part of the tour will take place before the new mini-albums come out. Apparently in terms of the two albums content, they both are going to be musically similar. He said directly that they were very electronic and kinda poppy, and seemed to imply it would be like a introverted, slightly calmer continuation of Painting With, but there will be variety to the sound.

As I write this last paragraph, this feels like something I should put in a separate post, but hopefully enough people read it here.

I will update with more stories later at some point

These are awesome details. Thanks for getting this info from the guys. Very cool and interesting to hear how Dave is a little more guarded in talking about his new music, which seems to mesh with his desire to surprise release things or to release as soon as something can be released vs Noah who is fine with having a pending release in the ether for ages.

This is really cool news.

Curious- did you talk to them at all about Coral Orgy performance and if that is getting any kind of release - maybe TTG style? Or more broadly, plans that anyone has to work with Deakin more, or even more broadly, just future non-solo AC plans?

Consider retelling the details about the new music over in the animal collective general thread, so more people see it. Really cool to hear.

I'm also curious about Deakin's involvement. Did you talk about him with them at all? I'm really hoping that the next AC album will involve him, but I'm also curious if they said anything about Sleep Cycle

Awesome stuff. Supes jelly.