Last week I saw Animal Collective play for the second time at The Metro in Chicago. Robert said he felt ecstatic at certain points in the show and so did I. The Metro is a nice theater too, more reverberant than the venue I saw them at the first time at the U. of Chicago. Animal Collective are one the few reasons compelling enough to get me to visit Chicago, and maybe for that matter, get out of bed. Sorry Chicago people. Bed, I ain't madatcha. The first song was 'Doggy' from Campfire Songs, a sample of the guitar part from that song on a loop accompanied by various pulses and electronic noises from Geologist, and of course Avey Tare and Panda Bear singing. There was no guitar in the show, which was a departure from at the U. of C. where they were a full band, and the songs were more like slow-building My Bloody Valentine walls of sound. They played alot of new material, which was good, tho Robert said they didn't play 'Reverend Green', which he had been talking to me about. The songs would start at a pulse, with some whispering sounds and various noises, then swell to at points deafening volume. Robert said it was the lowest bass he'd ever heard. Me too. You could feel it penetrating your chest, almost replacing your heartbeat. There was a lanky blond guy in a baggy shirt who was dancing ecstatically throughout, even during the quieter parts, but the quieter parts did have a pulse that you can dance to. I mainly jiggled around in place but that was more than most people were doing. You'd think there'd be alot more dancing at AC shows. But everybody was packed in. When the first piano tinklings of 'Loch Raven' sounded people responded to it immediately. Even at an Animal Collective show, especially at an Animal Collective show, the audience responds to the more familiar material, which is something I'd normally associate with Peter Frampton concerts. And 'Loch Raven' isn't a riff-driven song at all, tho this rendering of it gave me a new appreciation. 'We Tigers' was a high-point in the set, as it was the first time I saw them do it. It seems to come at a cathartic point, the electronics and bass pulses stripped away, so all it is is three people hitting a drum, whooping and dancing around. No encore, tho Panda Bear stood in front of his bank of samplers and keys for a protracted amount of time, prompting one of the tech-people to walk up and ask if there was anything he needed or if he was ok. I think he was. I think I could be bros with Panda Bear.