It reminded me of a pretentious art-school student’s experiment in sending subliminal messages through film – in a good way.
Distorted images washed in neon colors flashed across a screen, as Panda Bear stood hunched over his sparse equipment in the center of the stage.
“It’s kind of creepy,” a young woman behind me said.
The audience quickly fell into a trance, and the music and projections never ceased for the hour-long set.
Panda Bear played some familiar tracks from previous albums as well as newer material that will appear on his upcoming album, Tomboy, which currently has no set release date. He even treated the audience with reworked versions of Animal Collective songs from their latest release, Merriweather Post Pavilion.
The lyrics sounded familiar, but the songs were different enough to make the audience question if what they were hearing was new or old.
Lovers kissing and embracing flickered across the screen as he sang out, “I really want to do just what my body wants to do.”
A nearby couple took that as a suggestion.
The songs segued seamlessly from droning tunes to bass-heavy beats that rivaled any club anthem. Audience members danced and bobbed about until the rhythm gave way to a reverberating hum once again.
When the music stopped, it was like being snapped out of a dream. One blink and the incomprehensible images in front of my eyes were gone. The stage was empty. Back to reality.
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