Animal Collective @ The Astoria
For a band whose albums I love so much, Animal Collective are a surprisingly dreech live proposition.
Picture a man alternately yodeling and screaming through a flanger and reverb unit, backed up by another man making baby-noises through a differently timed reverb unit, accompanied by drums and by someone manipulating keyboards/synths/mixers in accordance with the instructions of his inner stoned 15-year-old self. Then take the output of the front-of-house mixing desk and pass it sequentially through a further 6 reverb units, all set to different delays.
I left once I realised I was falling asleep on my feet, and that the rapidly thinning crowd was no longer tightly packed enough to hold me upright if I was to nod off. Even The Mars Volta did a more interesting show that this - they at least jumped around a bit, even if their singer did look like he was ready to end it all half way through one 10 minute bass solo.
But, on the other hand, at least the support band - Battles - were really good.