Touring behind their latest album, Time Skiffs, released February 4th via Domino Records, Animal Collective ended their March tour with L’Rain in Atlanta at The Eastern.
The experimental pop icons who originally formed in Baltimore have spent the better part of the past 10 years hitting hard on the experimental part as a band, while members have also explored lots of solo work along the way. Yet the critically acclaimed new album takes the last decade’s work, while returning to those harmonies and dreamy soundscapes that climaxed over a decade ago, making for one of their most accessible albums in a long time. That should make for a pretty good show considering the band’s vast work.
Animal Collective took to the Eastern stage to a crowd ready and willing for whatever the band would bring them. With a 15 song set, the band was excited to be back touring, and gave to the Atlanta crowd a little bit of everything, spanning across their storied career. The new album Time Skiffs made a few appearances with “Dragon Slayer”, “Car Keys”, and certainly a live highlight, “Strung With Everything”. There were career highlights off of Merriweather Post Pavilion and Strawberry Jam like “In The Flowers” and “Applesauce”, but true to Animal Collective form, there was plenty of unreleased material played live as they continue to give snippets on this tour of future music. Animal Collective just has a way to take an audience on a journey through an evening: there is dancing, there is meditation, and there is euphoria. There was also a big joyful celebration when the band was joined by the audience and opening band L’Rain to sing Happy Birthday to Geologist (Brian Weitz). This was one damn good evening.
Brooklyn-based experimentalist and multi-instrumentalist Taja Cheek, aka L’Rain opened with a beautiful set while showing off her talented band that hit on everything from R&B to avant-garde rock. Touring behind her sophomore album, Fatigue, released in June of 2021 via Mexican Summer, L’Rain joined Animal Collective on this March tour and you could feel the love between the two bands as they all sang to Geologist, closing their month long together.
Check out photos below from the Animal Collective show with L’Rain at The Eastern in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, March 26th, all photos by Mike Gerry:
L’RAIN
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE ONLINE:
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UPCOMING ANIMAL COLLECTIVE TOUR DATES:
05-13 Boise, ID – Knitting Factory ^
05-14 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court Block Party
05-16 Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf ^
05-17 Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre ^
05-19 San Diego, CA – Humphreys Concerts By the Bay ^
05-20 Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
05-21 San Francisco, CA – The Warfield Theatre ^
05-23 Portland, OR – McMenamins Crystal Ballroom ^
05-24 Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory ^
05-26 Bellevue, CO – Mishawaka Amphitheatre ^
05-27 Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre ^
05-28 Kansas City, MO – The Truman ^
05-30 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall ^
05-31 Austin, TX – Emo’s ^
06-01 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater ^
06-03 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant ^
06-04 Madison, WI – TBA ^
08-12-08-14 Seattle, WA – Day In Day Out Fest
07-09 Madrid, Spain – Mad Cool Fest
11-02 Limerick, Ireland – Dolan’s
11-03 Dublin, Ireland – National Concert Hall
11-06 Bristol, England – SWX
11-07 Manchester, England – Albert Hall
11-09 Glasgow, Scotland – Saint Luke’s
11-12 Tourcoing, France – Le Grand Mix
11-15 Hamburg, Germany – Übel & Gefährlich
11-16 Berlin, Germany – Kesselhaus
11-17 Prague, Czech Republic – MeetFactory
11-19 Vienna, Austria – Arena
11-20 Munich, Germany – Freiheiz
11-21 Fribourg, Switzerland – Fri-Son
11-23 Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Atelier
11-24 Paris, France – Trabendo
11-27 Cologne, Germany – Luxor
^ with Spirit of the Beehive
