Orlando promoters Ugly Orange host Animal Collective's Avey Tare and Geologist for sold-out concert

THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Avey Tare and Geologist, Will’s Pub, April 24

Young Orlando promoters Ugly Orange have been on a well-documented tear in recent years, but this has got to be the biggest name booking for them so far. With Avey Tare headlining, Deakin playing in his live band and Geologist opening, they were the Orlando hosts to three-fourths of Animal Collective, which is even more than the quorum required to make one of their albums.
Oh, but the complicated legacy of Animal Collective. Their paradigm-changing music and approach effectively redrew the indie landscape in the 2000s and early 2010s. For the work that came from their actual hands and minds, the reasons were fairly valid. But like the four horsemen of the zeitgeist, they rode in on watershed 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavilion with such defining influence that they triggered a whole new generation of aspiring artists that started out a refreshing rush but ultimately became a scourge of wannabes who tried to peddle their thin psych-pop ideas under the trendy cover of underwater sonic effects. But as Jesus and the OGs of emo and ska have taught us, let’s not punish the originators for the sins of their followers.
On his own, Avey Tare (aka Dave Portner) has been as much of a creative moving target as Animal Collective have been. But the album he’s currently on, Cows on Hourglass Pond, is a relatively accessible snapshot of an artist whose entire career has been defined by obliqueness. The key word here, of course, is “relatively.” As such, this was no basic concert but a journey to outer realms.
Expectedly, Avey Tare’s set was a thing of dream and suspension. But even amid all the mystique of texture and atmosphere, the melodies of voice and instrument were clearly discernible. And the trio’s live, organic playing provided the magical space with some purposeful punctuation. Most crucially, though, a master plan was always evident and in command. Unlike the impressionism that many of his peers indulge in, Portner’s music maintains a lens that, though otherworldly, is focused and up close, arousing exploration from the details not hiding behind them.
Even though the agony of having to wade through all the vague bullshit that Animal Collective’s wake kicked up for years has yet to fully heal, seeing it done by some original masters like this goes a good way toward restoring faith.
Opening was Geologist, Portner’s AC bandmate Brian Weitz. Still sporting his signature headlamp, he dropped a rhythmic but largely beatless excursion of cerebral electronic music that was an astral trip in surround sound, turning the spot into a live chill-out room for indie kids.

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