Animal Collective @ Riverside in Milwaukee, 05/19/09 (or "O Hippe, Where Art Thou?")

Animal Collective played at the Riverside in Milwaukee on May 19th.  They originally were to play at The Pabst Theatre, but demand for tickets was so high that the show was moved to the larger Riverside.   Overall, the Animal Collective concert was probably a 5.5/10.   I think the crowd was the most annoying concert crowd I've seen in a while.   I forgot how many hippies are into this band.  The things that killed me about this concert were: (1) I've seen better bands up here with far less people at their shows, and (2) the hippies there didn't even seem that familiar with the music -- they were just there to hippie dance.  They actually were hippie dancing in the aisles before the show even started.  I kept hoping for Eric Cartman to save me.  Another thing that annoyed me was that everyone was standing for the first 20 minutes of the concert.  Really?  Standing?  Standing to see what, exactly?  It's three guys at tables with a bunch of lights.  Not exactly riveting to watch.  The band lost the crowd after that first 20 minutes.  People began sitting down and then only standing for the "hits."  I stayed sitting.  The sound was pretty good, but then  again, how could it really be bad?  90% of it was pre-recorded samples.   Overall, the show was interesting to see once.  And while I appreciated their ability to combine their different songs and flow from one to the other and back again, I don't see myself going to another one of their concerts.  Just too many hippies.