“How many times you say I’m finished with this and it starts all over?”

Pulling selections from Feels onward, Live at 9:30 presents Animal Collective as a jam band, stretching out these selections to double their studio lengths (‘Pulleys’ if 15 minutes long compared to the three and half minute studio version). Some of them are played differently than on the album, others mimic the studio efforts fairly well. Like Animal Collective’s other live albums, it’s more of a collector’s item, pressed onto three slices of psychedlic-colored vinyl.

Constrained by the live setting, there is a pleasant lack of tinkering, and the four musicians are forced to simply play their songs. They don’t try to reproduce the oddities of the studio versions, and are content to produce oddities live on stage, mixing their soupy electronica and Beach Boys melodies into unique combinations. The melding of electronic gadgetry with the Grateful Dead style extended jamming is actually pretty good, though it kind of devalues the actual song choices. The tunes lose some of their thematic quality in being stretched to such lengths, but the psychedelic vibe machine aesthetic remains constant throughout, and that is the real selling point.

I have my hang ups with the band’s output, but hearing them pull off some of their complex experiments in a live setting, with the intricate vocals and unconventional drumming really gives the listener an appreciation for what they are creating—and oftentimes obscuring—in the studio.

Favorite Tracks: My Girls; What Would I Want? Sky; The Purple Bottle.