[ATTENDED: November 18, 2024] Animals as Leaders
My Brother-in-law, Ben told me about Animals as Leaders back in 2019 just before they came to the East Coast. I grabbed a ticket to their TLA show and was really impressed (although I hated the crowd).
Animals as Leaders is a 3 piece founded by Tosin Abasi. He plays primarily the 8-string electric guitar and his fingers (on both hands) are all over the fretboard. Basically, he’s a guy you want to watch closely. He started the all-instrumental Animals as Leaders in 2009. Guitarist Javier Reyes also plays the 8 string (and is equally as amazing) and drummer Matt Garstka fill out the band.
The last time I saw them, the crowd was tall and very shove-y. This time the crowd was pretty tall, but I’m better at negotiating my spaces and the shoving was contained. The last time I saw them they were touring the tenth anniversary of their debut album. This tour was the tenth anniversary of their The Joy of Motion album, which they played straight through.
I didn’t know the album, but boy everyone else did–I love when a room sings a long to an instrumental.
The band sounds huge, with both guitarists playing low and high ends at the same time and the drummer playing nonstop so that it’s a constant wall of sound.
There’s not a lot more to say about the show. Most of the songs are heavy with complex rhythms and time signatures. There were a couple of songs that were quieter with one acoustic song (and Reyes switched down to a 7 string!). The musicianship was amazing. What I found especially interesting is that their songs aren’t especially long–most around 4 minutes. This packs a lot of musical information into digestible chunks.
He told us that his favorite song was The Woven Web (it rocked) and thanked us for being there for ten years and more.
When the album was over (about an hour), they left for a brief encore break.
When they came back Tosin asked if we wanted one more. And they played The Brain Dance. Mid-song, opening guitarist Plini came out to play a ripping solo and then he left again. Tosin asked if we wanted one more. We did and they played the ripping Ectogenesis and then Red Miso from their most recent album. After that he asked if we wanted one more, for real, last song and they ended the night with the new(ish) powerhouse “Monomyth.”
It was a great set.
I should also mention the lighting. It was mostly kind of dark–blues and reds–but they had their own (pretty intense) lighting rig. One of the bigger rigs I’ve seen at Union Transfer. It was definitely cool and did lots of nifty lighting tricks. It probably looked fantastic from further back, but I wanted to get up close to see the fingerwork. And I think i made the right choice.
I don’t think I’ll see them again, but I did enjoy this show quite a lot.
| 2024 Union Transfer | 2019 TLA |
| Ka$cade ♥ | Espera (tape) ∞ |
| Lippincott ♥ | Wave of Babies @ |
| Air Chrysalis ♥ | Tempting Time @ |
| Another Year ♥ | Thoroughly at Home @ |
| Physical Education♥ | Arithmophobia ϖ |
| Tooth and Claw ♥ | Cognitive Contortions ϖ |
| Crescent ♥ | Nephele ♥ |
| The Future That Awaited Me ♥ | The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing / Behaving Badly @ |
| Para Mexer♥ | Para Mexer ♥ |
| The Woven Web ♥ | The Brain Dance ϖ |
| Mind-Spun ♥ | Ectogenesis ϖ |
| Nephele ♥ | Inner Assassins ϖ |
| encore | The Woven Wed ♥ |
| The Brain Dance ϖ (with Plini) | CAFO @ |
| Ectogenesis ϖ | encore |
| Red Miso ¶ | Physical Education ♥ |
| Monomyth ¶ |
¶ = Parrhesia (2022)
ϖ = The Madness of Many (2016)
♥ = The Joy of Motion (2014)
∞ = Weightless (2011)
@ = Animals as Leaders (2009)
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