Montreal's cavernous Metropolis baited many people last night for Animal Collective's show, with support from Grouper. Opening with "In the Flowers" accompanied by waves of people and a projection of a ballerina on an inflated iridescent globe/buoy hanging above centre stage, the New-York based group descended and propelled their way through much of their most recent album "Merriweather Post Pavilion".
They literally pulse energy and haul a diverse audience together, stranding us upside down like the flickering out-of-time dancer in search of a familiar beat or some reliable hook for over 70 minutes: their performances consistently unnerve and manipulate. Their chaos can sometimes seem too deep to penetrate, or spawn doubt, and isolate the listener who has made their records their own. Songs are uncannily dismantled and rendered unrecognisable by the three on stage masqued under pink blue and yellow lights backlit with the dazzling Kitaoka pattern as they reverse ("Daily Routine"), slow down ("Banshee Beat") endlessly remix rewrite remake and run tracks into each other. The melodies always emerge underneath though, long after, the dense beats and dark layers are pulled back to reveal something more beautiful for the effort it has taken the listener and performer to get there.
There is a masochistic pleasure in seeing Animal Collective live, perhaps as Merriweather has drawn more people with its addictive and seemingly benign rhythms and melodies it is even more pronounced; they surely devoured Metropolis.
