Animal Collective @ Neptune Theatre (3/4/2016)

I'm realizing a couple of things about Animal Collective...

First, I don't really like them live.  This show was even less satisfying than the last time I saw them.  Part of that was their setlist - they played a lot of songs from their disappointing new album, and none of their songs that I really like.  Part of that is due to their indulgently long intros and outros to seemingly every single song (I can appreciate transitions between songs, but if you know how I feel about extended solos and noodling you will understand why I think what they do is way too much).  Part of it is the chaotic cacophany that is their performance - sometimes it's hard to discern the underlying melody even if I'm familiar with the song.  And part of it is that apart from the drummer and the singing it's impossible to tell what any of them is doing in terms of creating the music/sounds - three knob twiddlers does not make for captivating performance.

Second, there's only one of their albums that I really like front to back - Merriweather Post Pavilion.  I like some songs on their other albums, but I guess I don't think any of them is really that good.  Hmmm.

Rating: 2.8/5