The mood was quite different the last time I saw Animal Collective. It was the summer of 2004, and the band had just released their breakthrough LP, Sung Tongs. Of the 100 or so folks who showed up to see the band play in the basement of a university building that night, I would wager that most, if not all of them had heard Sung Tongs and were eager to see how the songs would be rendered live. The members of Animal Collective, however, had their own plans. In what has since become a hallmark of Animal Collective’s live sets, the band decided to eschew album tracks in favor of a series of works in progress, most of which took the form of protracted, improvised drone experiments. This, of course, made the crowd anxious and the band, determined to stand their ground, reacted with contempt. The end result was a tense, confrontational vibe–it felt as if the band was playing against, rather than for the audience.

Fast-forward five years and it’s clear that Animal Collective has learned a thing or two while on the road. It helps, of course, that the band’s latest, Merriweather Post Pavilion, veers far more toward pop territory. Taking their cues from house music, the band writes songs that are as rewarding as they are challenging, full of big, bright melodies, straightforward rhythms and undeniable hooks. And just as releasing an accessible album eventually became the most unpredictable and therefore, logical move the band could make, touring on that album in earnest became similarly inevitable.