Words by Paul

Camera and editing by BAL

Audio mixed by Silvadough

Fresh off the intimate Friday night Kurt Vile set in the ever hot-as-balls Cakeshop sweatbox, the BAL squad continued its coverage of the Big Ass Weekend with its centerpiece: Animal Collective catching tons of wreck at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Animal Collective packin’em in a huge outdoor setting like Prospect Park kind of worried me on a dork level out as I recall seeing the band a good 5 years ago spewing shambling noise vomit to a clearly pissed off crowd. I was happy they were pissed just as much as I was content that I wasn’t. I was “special”. No longer. Times have definitely changed for Animal Collective and over the years they’ve undergone a radical, albeit logical, evolution. Whereas the band’s show was formerly a wildly inconsistent (but exciting) caterwauling mess of beat driven filth, their live set has become so melodic and airtight that any comparison to the days of yore are nearly night and day. We must emphasize the "nearly" as fortunately for our ears and eyes the band’s live set is as hermetically sealed as their song-sculpted newer records; and yet as bursting at the seams as the Animal Collective of old. Bursting with ideas, progressions, chords, and more often than not, still dripping in feedback and squealing out rumbles of bass-loaded color. And color might as well have been the defining word of the evening!

We rolled up to the show bright and early to ensure at least a few beers and make sure we had no problems getting past security. Fortunately, security presented no problems as we entered the venue unscathed packing a big ass lens, monster tripod, and other assorted goodies undetected. Basically, we’re gangster.

As the AC crew began to set up we entered the fray, crashing through the rather packed pit of balls-tripping teenagers. Seriously, there were mad high school kids up in there dosed out of their faces. Our "welcome to a 2009 Animal Collective concert" moment came just as we entered the pit as there was a laid-the-f-out high school girl and a sprawling puddle of god knows what next to her. She sat motionlessly covered in filth as her panicking young friends basically poured mad water on her - you know, cause it helps her more than if she simply drank it?. We gawked for a hot minute, and then threw some ‘bows and moved up to the front. Big ups to the surrounding fans that let us set up shop to grab these amazing videos!

As you can tell, this was a trippy-as-hell set design and as the show went on, a new layer of bug-out basically hit our faces every few minutes. Undulating ocean waves, inflatable Crash Bandicoot looking dudes, mad lights and a massive Jaws® shark with fresh prey in its grasp... quite a dose of color!

And the band? Opening with the KILLER “Grace”, Avey started the night off with some Mike Patton-esque crooning and from there on out they slayed the shit out of the whole set. Avey came through with an energetic performance – gesticulating wildly, shifting his voice at will and yelping like only he can. Meanwhile, Panda Bear laced the delicacies while Geologist basically spazzed out on some heaviness. So heavy in fact that our audio crew had a bit of a time trying to compress the audio properly. Geologist created some beautifully thick dub-step like beats for Panda and Avey to fill out in kaleidoscopic fashion.

If only the crowd danced a little more! Either way, as our clips of “Grace”, “My Girls”, “What Would I Want Sky” will show this band is seamless live and their tightness is truly marvelous. Big ups to Animal Collective for an awesome show - we’re definitely happy they’re blowing up a bit and paying some bills!