Tuesday, November 22, 2005

call the whaaa-mbulance

Seems that that post about the sheriff didn't exactly set the blog on fire (I wrote this before I saw the comments, obvs) so I'll try again. Animal Collective review:

As the show was starting we pushed our way towards the middle and proceeded to get stoned, as did 99% of the other people at the show. Everyone agreed that this was the stoniest show they had been to in ages. It looked like there was a fog machine going. I took two pretty big hits and was about to go for a third when smiller warned me "watch out, this stuff is strong". I kinda smirked and almost went for it when I hesitated for a second and thought "Wait, I can feel my eyeballs vibrating". That seemed like a sign that I should stop and good thing I did because if I hadn't I can almost guarantee that my night would have ended in the emergency room. Animal Collective took the stage. It was really hot down on the floor and I was wearing a sweater and the third or fourth song started to get scary and intense and I started to pass out. I was lightheaded and my vision started to go black. I stumbled and pushed my way out of the crowd and to the back (stupidly pushing my way away from my friends) and was terrified that I was actually going to faint and that someone would call an ambulance and that I was going to be forced to tell the ambulance driver that I had just gotten too stoned, and imagining myself thrown in jail as a result. I thought maybe if I could cool down in the bathroom I would be OK. I was still drifting out of consciousness so I couldn't make it and I just ended up sitting on the stairs with my head between my knees. I'm sure I was white as a ghost and I was burning up and covered in a clammy sweat. A song or two passed by while I was in this state and finally an employee (who seemed to be able to tell that I was having some sort of drug freakout, I bet they see them all the time) told me he could get me a glass of water but I was going to have to move off the stairs. I found a seat upstairs and proceeded to talk myself down and convince myself that no, the weed was not laced with acid, it was just really strong. The music? Amazing but I only had stoney, disjointed thoughts about it. It was a very different show from last time. Really catchy and poppy. Last time I was down in the middle and lots of the crowd was distracted and chatting while Davey did stuff like crumple paper into the microphone for 10 minutes. This time the crowd was going absolutely apeshit. It was crazy. More unforced, genuine enthusiasm than I can remember seeing in forever. And the band was feeding off of it and seemed touched. They were called back for two encores and I'm pretty sure they didn't expect the second one but the crowd wouldn't give up. Afterwards the Stooges song "no fun" played and a hippie dance circle started with some Animal Collective acolytes who were dressed in like batik and backless shirts and shit. Is A.C. the new Greatful Dead? Only time will tell.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought they were amazing, even though I couldn't really see anything and had stand in the midst of a fart enclave that even weed smoke couldn't mask. Free love was flowing and I witnessed an offering of a tomatoey looking persimmon to Davey Tare from an arty boho hippy goddess. It was beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Forgot to sign off,

Brew

beckler said...

According to gawker stalker, david bowie was at the show in NY. I didn't see any celebs at the SF show, unless you count sacto caveman.

beckler said...

oops. grateful dead. caught it finally.