Caught Live: Panda Bear, Dublin

Notwithstanding an impromptu solo stand at the end of Animal Collective’s Whelans show a few years back, tonight is Noah Lennox’s debut Irish performance as Panda Bear. That being said, anyone arriving at Vicar St. this evening expecting to hear ‘the hits’ (i.e. an airing of 2007 magnum opus Person Pitch in its entirety) has another thing coming; as Lennox stated recently on his MySpace blog, this current tour is all about road-testing new material, with solo album number four, Tomboy, supposedly on the way this September. Accordingly, what tonight’s crowd do get is an hour-long set of works-in-progress, some of which hit the spot, and some of which have queues forming at the bar. 

The stabbing, arrhythmic blast of opener ‘Drone’ sets the tone for what’s to come: a sparse, primal howl lasting six minutes-plus, it’s nothing if not a brave opening shot. Shortly afterwards, though, the balmy wash of ‘Surfer’s Hymn’ warms the crowd up no end – it’s the most youtubeable of tonight’s new cuts, and certainly the most fully-formed, featuring familiarly layered vocal patterns and a tropical melody. ‘I’m Not’, the one old track played tonight, almost feels like an interlude after this, a brief respite before Lennox launches into a more beat-heavy second-half. In amongst several cul-de-sacs and half-songs, there’s at least one ‘dubstep moment’, and a pounding dancefloor number possibly entitled ‘Slow Motion’. Those who run out of patience and leave before the end will have missed the gorgeous ‘You Can Count On Me’, a disarmingly straight-up love song on which Lennox’s soaring vocal climbs and climbs atop a simple guitar line. 

And that’s about it. Audience grumbles aside – there’s no encore tonight, and it would have been nice to hear ‘Bros’ or ‘Comfy in Nautica’ – there can be little doubt that Noah Lennox’s restless mind remains a vital, uncompromising musical force. If Person Pitch drew vicarious inspiration from a psychedelic past, this new material seems harder to pin down; certainly, parts of tonight’s set seem to have more in common with the likes of Suicide, Aphex Twin, and even Fuck Buttons, than the tribal Brian Wilson stylings of Person Pitch, but that’s only telling half the story. Just like in his day job, there’s a sense here that Lennox is forging ahead into uncharted musical waters. 

The success of Merriweather Post Pavilion continues to bring his band legions of new fans, and has undoubtedly upped the ante ahead of Tomboy’s arrival. But, while tonight’s set contains plenty of troughs as well as peaks, there’s enough new light seeping through to suggest September can’t come soon enough.

Photo: Fiona Diffley (full gallery to follow)