Animal Collective are not an inherently nostalgic band, even though they certainly embody a certain time and aesthetic in indie rock history. They're also not a terribly active band. All four members are very busy, but they live in different parts of the world and don't assemble at full force all that often. So it was a big deal when AnCo announced a quick run of shows where they would play their 2005 classic Feels in full for the first time ever. After running into ticketing issues with bots and glitches, they added a couple more shows, but this still amounts to a very brief episode in the band's life. It means that every one of these Feels shows is special.
On Wednesday night, Animal Collective played the first of their Feels shows at the Knockdown Center in Queens. Their buddy Eric Copeland, of Black Dice and Terrestrial Tones, opened the show. This was AnCo's first full live set in four years. Even when they toured more actively, many of the songs from Feels were not regular parts of their setlists. The show included plenty of tracks — "Did You See The Words," "Bees," "Daffy Duck," "Loch Raven," "Turn Into Something" — that the band hadn't performed in a decade or more.
In addition to all of Feels, Animal Collective also played a bunch of songs from that general era. They did both of their "Grass" B-sides, "Must Be Treeman" and "Fickle Cycle." They also did "Tikwid" and "My Favorite Colors," from their People EP. Based on the videos circulating online, they sounded as dizzy and euphoric as you'd hope. Below, watch a bunch of those videos below, and check out last night's setlist, via Setlist.fm:
"Did You See The Words":
"Grass":
"Purple Bottle":
"Banshee Beat":
"Loch Raven":
"Turn Into Something":
SETLIST:
01 "Did You See the Words" (first time since 2013)
02 "Grass" (first time since 2019)
03 "Flesh Canoe"
04 "The Purple Bottle"
05 "Bees" (first time since 2017)
06 "Banshee Beat" (first time since 2019)
07 "Daffy Duck" (first time since 2006)
08 "My Favorite Colors" (first time since 2004)
09 "Loch Raven" (first time since 2016)
10 "Turn Into Something" (first time since 2005)
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11 "Must Be Treeman" (first time since 2005)
12 "Tikwid" (first time since 2005)
13 "Fickle Cycle"