Concert Review: Panda Bear Is Another Frequency At Brooklyn Steel
Panda Bear had to be one of the most distinct music experiences of my life. Looking at the sold out crowd, I kept on hearing, “He is seriously good. F*CK!” In a world that divides music according to taste, Panda Bear shows music is not about liking; it is about understanding. This Animal Collective star has a captured frequency that has led to a mass following.
The beauty of a Panda Bear show is that it staple on the exclusivity of inclusivity. The Panda Bears might be the cutest fan club/ cult following I have ever heard, but this artist’s is not cuddly in the way you think. He seemingly smacked together nature calls over abstract noises to formulate a single theme: “You Are Real!” This may not seem like the most powerful message, but in a world that seeks fantasies, addictions, and instant gratifications over a sense of steadiness and self, it radiated to the crowd. With images of a dancing alien and erratic shapes forming, the audience was hypnotized by his composed, coolheaded voice that literally said the verse like, “I am real.”
If you see the video above, in some ways, it most represents Panda Bear’s style and show. He aims to reveal the part of you that thinks it is an “alien” or “too different” and show that it is, actually, your most authentic self. Having screens that looked like the ones used for high-school presentations and placing his synthesizer on a principal-like podium transformed tracks like, “Buoys”, “Nod to the Folks”, and “I Know I Don’t” into classes on how the cells your imagination work. Each cell/ song grows and formulates to give you a vision, while Panda Bear remains still, behind the podium, like the President of Alienation.
I really enjoyed Panda Bear’s show because it felt like I was entering a world/ community that I had never known, and thrived on their mutual eccentricity. That experience alone transformed his concert into something to admire. Not every artist can attract people because they truly believe he or she represents them. Looking at the Panda Bear crowd, they felt so connected to him and his creation that I could see the continued longevity of Panda Bear’s career/genius blossoming amongst the dancing, strobed lights. For More Information On Panda Bear Click Here.
