Animal Collective Play Feels at The Fonda Theatre

Animal Collective haven't played a full live show in about four years. On Saturday, October 24, all four of them (Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin) take the stage at The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood to play Feels, their 2005 album, from the first track to the last. Ticketmaster files the band under dance/electronic. That undersells how strange they are, but it does make this the oddest, and maybe the most rewarding, of this month's LA EDM events.

Feels Live

The band is calling it Feels Live. It was announced as just two dates: the Knockdown Center in Queens on October 22, then the Fonda two nights later. About a week after the announcement, they added a third show at the Fox Theater Pomona on October 26.

The idea grew out of last year's Feels 20th anniversary reissue on Domino, which came with a bonus disc of nine B-sides and unreleased demos. Fans kept asking why they weren't playing the album live, and the band admitted they'd never asked themselves. Their schedules rarely line up. Now a short window has opened, and they say they're relearning the record by digging out "old loops, tunings, pedals, and a working minidisc player" to get the original sounds back. They'll add a few extras from the same era, and they've called the shows "a 21st birthday party."

Feels came out between 2004's Sung Tongs and the two records that took the band mainstream, Strawberry Jam in 2007 and Merriweather Post Pavilion in 2009. It's the one with "Grass," "The Purple Bottle" and the long, churning "Banshee Beat." It's looser and noisier than what came after. Expect tangled guitars, loops and yelped harmonies, not drops.

The room

The Fonda opened on October 20, 1926, as the Music Box, so this show lands four days after the building turns 100. Goldenvoice has run it since 2012. The building is Spanish Colonial Revival, and it has held plays, films and radio broadcasts over the last century. It has hosted a full-album night before: the Rolling Stones played Sticky Fingers in its entirety there in May 2015.

Tickets and getting there

The show starts at 9 p.m. Ticketmaster lists it as on sale, but we couldn't confirm a price or an age policy, so check the Ticketmaster listing before you plan the night. With only three dates on the whole run, resale markups are a real risk. Stick with the official listing.

The Fonda is at 6126 Hollywood Blvd., a short walk east of the Hollywood/Vine station on the Metro B Line. The train is the easy way in on a Saturday night, when traffic on the Boulevard crawls. If you drive, paid lots around Hollywood and Vine are your best bet, because street parking near the theater is scarce on weekend nights.

If you're building a list of things to do in Los Angeles for the weekend of October 24, this one has the shortest shelf life. Three nights, two coasts, and the band says it only has a short window together right now.

For more Things Happening In Hollywood, see our Hollywood page. Our EDM category page has the rest of our EDM Los Angeles picks, which lean a lot harder on DJ sets and a lot less on minidisc players.