Animal Collective @ the Wiltern - I had my mind blown
 

We didn't think we were going to see this show. It's been sold out for a while. We were actually trying to figure out if we could somehow get away with driving to Phoenix tomorrow to catch them. But we fortunately got tickets a couple weeks ago.

Now I almost wish we HAD gone through with the crazy Phoenix plan, because if we had made what surely would have been a masochistic day trip out there and back, and THAT performance was the reward....it would have been extra magical.

As it was, the show was out of this world good. I don't know what I really expected, but I guess I was expecting something along the lines of their 2-song encore, a selection of their hits with a trippier edge, and a little bit of their less accessible noise thrown in.

What we witnessed instead was 2 solid hours of the most beautiful wall of noise I've ever witnessed, with a 45 second intermission where we learned they had just come from 2 weeks in Big Sur. For 2 hours, they never lost my attention for a moment.

The Wiltern is my new favorite venue. It's beautiful, and it's just a great place for a show. Not overcrowded even for a sold out show, no difficulty finding good sight lines. Great place.

I'll be replaying this one in my head for a long time.

I still look and feel like this: :eek:

Now is an amazing time for this stuff which defies description....noise rock, freak folk, psych pop, whatever you call it.

So are you saying the rest of us should really consider driving out to Phoenix in a few hours?






(oh, and i'm highly amused there's two Mind Blown threads just started on the LoT within 12 hours of each other. Nice to know minds are being blown right and left. What do the planets say?)

Don't tempt me...

I'd hate to be responsible for a long trip gone awry. ;)

But if you haven't already, anyone who likes to trip the F out should check their music, at least. (and the latest album cover...wooooooo)