Bonnaroo Video: Animal Collective, 2:45pm, June 12

Bonnaroo Photos: Animal Collective, Day 2

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Is that an actual Ocean Pacific t-shirt? Animal Collective onstage at Bonnaroo, June 12, 2009. Photo by David McClister/Billboard.com.

Animal Collective Brings The Heat Friday Afternoon At Bonnaroo

The memory of last night’s downpour started to dry up by mid-afternoon Friday (June 12) at Bonnaroo 2009. Animal Collective helped usher in a super-hot sunny afternoon in Manchester with an hour-plus-long set that alternately enthralled and confused a solid, sizeable crowd at the Which Stage
 
The adventurous pop trio opened with the upbeat “Lion in a Coma” and “Summertime Clothes” from their latest album, "Merriweather Post Pavilion," teasing the audience with fractured rock grooves. But eventually the band settled into more outrageous material such as the frail epic “Oh, Sycamore,” with its measured pace and deliberate, echo-drenched vocals. The more manic “Fireworks,” from the 2007 album "Strawberry Jam," showed Animal Collective to be as much a “jam band” as the festival headliners, as the group switched off instruments and journeyed from yelped choruses to an extended danceable, polyrhythmic shuffle. --Troy Carpenter

Must-See Bonnaroo Itinerary: Animal Collective

There are over 125 acts playing at Bonnaroo this year. Trying to navigate the overload? Billboard picked ten sets to take you from Friday through Sunday night and give you the most band for your buck without passing out from trying to race from one stage to the next. Just start with number one as we count you through the weekend, and preview the tunes you might hear along the way.

WARM UP:  ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Friday 2.45-4.00 pm Which Stage | Full Schedule

Baltimore-by-way-of-NYC freak-pop group Animal Collective hits Bonnaroo on a high note, riding in on critical acclaim for eighth album "Merriweather Post Pavilion," released in January on Domino Records.  Chopped-up folk, sunny-day pop hooks, exploratory noise experiments: nearly anything's fair game for the eclectic trio, set to bring its energy to the secondary main stage early in the heat of Friday afternoon.  --Troy Carpenter