The Roseland Theater: would you like to stand at armpit-sniffing height behind these tall people or those tall people? I need to invest in a smart, practical pair of 5-inch heels for going to shows. This is my main issue with the larger venues with larger crowds.


(photo taken at eye level. this was the entire show)

The opener kind of sucked, and I'm usually pretty excited about openers. We sat in the bar downstairs and ate pizza and drank water and half-watched the band casted on the TV screen.

Conversation with my best friend is never a waste.

When we went upstairs for Animal Collective, we could not get through the massive solid block of taller-than-us people, and nobody showed mercy for us shorties. Defeated, we camped out in a tight old-growth forest of hot sweat (we could kinda see the stage between heads though), and after some uncomfortable amount of time, the music started. Even taller people appeared in front of us out of nowhere.

I mostly bought these tickets for my partner since he is a big fan of AC. I have a weird non-relationship with AC. It is one of respect and acknowledgement that in a parallel universe it would probably be a favorite band of mine. All the tags and related artists and musical characteristics signify I would love AC. I listened to Strawberry Jam in high school when the torrent community I was in pointed it out as one of the best of the year, and I listened to it several times with somewhat unfulfilled enthusiasm. I liked Peacebone. My partner had since shown me songs I've really liked, good beginner tracks like Summertime Clothes. I'd kept up with the release of their newest single, FloriDada, which wasn't their greatest but I listened to it. My coworker had posted Panda Bear's Mr. Noah in the music chat, which I quickly came to love. I tried listening to Avey Tare once but the album was released in reverse for some artsy reason. I found an unreversed version, and thought the music sounded really good, but couldn't bear to download it like that because it was unofficial and not how the artist released it. Maybe I would have liked Avey Tare. (Animal Collective is made up of two guys who, solo, go by Avey Tare and Panda Bear.)

They played none of these songs. (Except for FloriDada in the encore, naturally. When it came on, a guy near us broke down in happiness like "OMG I can't believe it! They're playing this song!") It was a sold out show at the Roseland, one of the bigger venues in town, and everyone knows they are a popular band. I'm not sure what songs they were playing, and what albums they were playing off of, new or old. I wondered if they were catering to their most loyal fans by playing the deep cuts or if I was just that clueless to not recognize any of the songs despite having listened to at least 2 of their albums. It was pretty jammy and stuff, and it seemed like the light show might've been cool, as I watched with my neck craned at reflections of bright colors flickering off the ceiling.

As people moved to the music, I sometimes caught glimpses of one of the guys playing on stage. If I leaned just so, I could focus on Avey Tare when the heads moved out of the way, or if I leaned over this way, I could catch Panda Bear sometimes. Panda Bear is cute so I chose that side.



And that was the show. The tickets were like $35. I've seen some OK shows at the Roseland like Little Dragon, but I think the average height of Little Dragon's fanbase is shorter than AC's. Plus the openers for that show were awesome (Cibo Matto AND Little Dragon in one night?! are you kidding?) so we had a spot pretty close to the front staked out behind a bunch of short girls my height. And that show was cheaper too. I dunno man