Concert review: Animal Collective turned House of Blues into a full-out dance club

by Taylor Prater of The Indie-verse

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Not a single person was planted to the ground.

DALLAS — Animal Collective hit up the House of Blues in Dallas last night, and many, many things happened in our reality that might have stemmed from other dimensions, if ya know what I’m sayin’.

Openers Micachu and the Shapes kicked off the night with some quirky psychedelic Brit pop to get everyone ready and raring for a helluva time with Animal Collective. Things were passed around. People were crossing into another land. Anticipation built and built until finally the stage went black and it was time to get going.

And get going it did, to say the least. Animal Collective kicked off with big favorites “Honeycomb” and “Today’s Supernatural,” starting off with a bang and setting the steadily growing, controlled chaos that would consume the House of Blues within a couple hours’ time.

First of all, let’s talk about the stage. We all know Centipede Hz has a supremely trippy album cover, which should not be a surprise considering the band, but never before would I have thought the cover would come to life on the stage in front of me.

The stage was teeth, y’all. TEETH: Several large, blow-up, translucent squares lit up to the rhythm, attached by curved, pink blow-ups meant to resemble gums, and from far away looked like they were being consumed by the album cover itself.

So sounds like a pretty tame night of pretty tame music does it not? Just ask the guy doing interpretive dances throughout the entire performance. That takes some stamina.

The middle of the band’s set served perfectly for people like the man on the balcony, resembling more of their experimental, chanting style from earlier albums like Strawberry Jam, enabling a multicolored journey into the teeth, onto the stage, and into a different reality.

And starting with “Fireworks,” things got real, and fast. I’m talking House of Blues turned into a full-out dance club, and that includes the band members themselves. Whether it was Avey Tare bouncing around the entirety of the stage in rapid circles or the couple in front of me more or less performing a Native American rain dance, not a single person was planted to the ground – not even the tall man to my left built to be a professional wrestler.

By the time the encore had finished, the lights had turned back on and the teeth diminished of color, the sense of confusion in the air was strong enough that it had to have taken everyone at least a few minutes to realize they had to leave the venue and return to the world as it truly is.

Did you miss the show, or just want to relive it? Check out our Twitter feed here and our photo gallery here.

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