Animal Collective continued their Painting With tour with two stops in NYC at Irving Plaza last week. Fresh off the album’s release, they continued their penchant for not only changing their sound with each album, but the live show evolves as well. This tour and album were different in that they didn’t play any of the songs on the road before recording. They normally use their live shows to feel out the songs and work through and expand on them, so that by the time they go into the studio to record, the songs have morphed into something completely different. Everything but the energy seemed a little paired back this tour; they played smaller venues, they had one less band member, there was less instrumentation on stage, but this seemed to force the show to have some more focus.
Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist ditched their usual instruments and were setup in front of modular synthesizers, while Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks/Ponytail band-mate Jeremy Hyman took over the drumming duties. For Painting With, the band made a conscious decision to keep the songs short and to the point. The songs are fast and dense, like they had taken their essence and squashed it into a hard little piece of bubble gum. It was on the road that the songs would be chewed up and stretched out.
As with most Animal Collective shows, the latest album was heavily featured. But that didn’t stop them from throwing several older gems into the set. The new tracks had a sense of frenetic acid pop, which pulsated with tribal rhythms that drove the energy forward and carried momentum throughout the set, even if the audience wasn’t necessarily familiar with all of the new material.
They started off the night with a torrent of new sounds as they tore through material from Painting With, the only respites was their cover of the 60’s Motown classic, “Jimmy Mack,” by Martha and the Vandellas and “Daily Routine” from Merriweather Post Pavillion. The room erupted when they then dropped into “Golden Gal”. It’s candy coated melodies make up the most infectious track from Painting With and the crowd ate it up. On Delay is perhaps the strongest of the new tracks and it was a great jumping off point to slide into the sublime Feels track “Loch Raven”. They then finished the set off with “Floridada”, an earworm of a song that had the crowd jumping along and ended the set with a cartoonish exclamation point.,
The droning trance of “Bees” gave everyone a chance to recollect themselves during the beginning of the encore before “Lying on the Grass” melted into the old-school classic “Alvin Row”, a song that many people were hearing live for the first time as they had never played the song live as a band before this tour. Some people were completely losing their shit, and it’s hypnotic builds and releases were a great way to end the show.
Animal Collective continues their tour this week with stops in Denver and Utah, before heading to the Pacific Northwest. Check out myanimalhome.net for more dates.
Setlist: Natural Selection, Gnip Gnop, Hocus Pocus, The Burglars, Jimmy Mack, Daily Routine, Golden Gal, Summoning the Wretch, On Delay, Loch Rave, Floridada
Encore: Bees, Lying in the Grass, Alvin Row
That’s right, you’re ready to take your friendship to the next level, but shorty just wants to keep it platonic. This is the mental picture I got when listening to Above Water, an independent album to be released March 8 by Long Island singer, songwriter and producer Gibbz.

“Buckle in, we’re just getting started,” Hamilton tells the crowd as he took off his pin-decorated jacket to reveal a black t-shirt with the text “9:30” in large white letters, likely from the famed club in Washington D. C. Drummer Al Smith also changed out a cymbal in preparation for what was to come.




A highlight of the night was when
David Gans is a man with many talents. After launching a music career in 1970, Gans became a noted and award-winning journalist born, writing for Rolling Stone, Relix and BAM, while also serving as editor at a few different publications.
The winter in Buffalo has been awfully nice to us this year. For those who know we are known for some of the worst snow conditions. This past Friday was quite the exception. We had a beautiful 45 degree day to welcome Buffalo native legends 
The evening’s set list showcased songs from the band’s latest release, 