Panda Bear gave the Paradise Rock Club a beautifully crafted contemporary art piece with his outstanding, forward-thinking performance on Friday. I’m not sure if it was his mother and sister supporting him in the crowd, the new work that he highlighted throughout the night or just the last weekend of summer vibes, but Noah Lennox delivered a hell of a set.
After a vocal-reaching rendition of “You Can Count on Me” early in the show, Panda Bear played a satisfying dose of new songs off his upcoming album, Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper. You could cram a list of about 20 different band names together and possibly come to a decent comparison for the material, but ultimately it’s just an evolving Panda Bear to the core.
I’ve been increasingly impressed with all aspects of Animal Collective, looking past last year’s snafus of watching the group bicker each other off the stage mid-“Purple Bottle” at Governor’s Ball 2013 followed by a cancellation of their remaining tour. This show further iterated the collective’s individual members’ strength, as Panda Bear continually demonstrated dynamic and daring range in his songs.
For the fans that could get past the strobes directed toward the audience’s faces, the projected background visuals were incredibly thought provoking and artistic in form.
Bare-all dancers were intrinsically weaved through bright watercolor patterns for a cinematic journey through what one can only imagine was Panda Bear’s jab at society today. The naturally stunning and nude contemporary ballet dancers morphed from song to song—first altering to have blotchy skin and distressed demeanors before taking on costumes and make-up from head to toe sprinkled with snap shots of glamourized nails. Eventually the dancers left the screen for the psychedelic grim reaper himself to take over the backdrop. The show was fit for the Institute of Contemporary Art in every aspect.
Panda Bear closed the night with the crowd-pleasing “Last Night at the Jetty” in the encore off 2011’s Tomboy. Panda Bear’s studio-quality vocal performance and clean finesse of complexly layered songs made the Paradise performance one of Boston’s best of the year.
Blues Control kicked off the night with music fitting for a night with Panda Bear. The Pennsylvania-duo predominantly sounded like if Black Moth Super Rainbow were covering a Philip Glass composition in acid jazz format. The group’s cinematic flair was in direct contradiction to the with the member’s overly sedated stage presence. With kaleidoscopic backdrops of brightly infused colors similar to that of Panda Bear, Blues Control made for the perfect way to start the night.
Need more of the Bear? Check out one of his live sets from last week above and listen to a less than ideal recording of my favorite new song from the set, “Latin Boys,” below.
