Todd P's Llano Estacado
Animal Collective at Todd P's club Llano Estacado
A lot of people have been asking us about Todd P's new space The Llano Estacado by the river in Williamsburg (NE Corner of Metropolitan & River St). We finally had a chance to investigate last night at the sold out Animal Collective show (check them out tonight at The Bowery Ballroom). It's a huge windowless 2-level warehouse space with its main stage in the basement. Piss before you arrive, there's a scary makeshift toilet behind a black plastic curtain. The upstairs has a smaller stage and there was some local art hanging. The club is impressively huge and refreshingly lo-fi. Definitely a DIY experiment. There were extension cords hanging from the ceiling. The sound was great even though we felt like we were in some weird post apocalyptic dungeon. Click here to go to promoter and owner Todd P's website.
Here's Todd's explanation of the name:
"The Llano Estacado is pronounced law-no ez-tuh-caw-doh, it's named after a region of West Texas, where the desert meets the Great Plains, and also a place where they willfully mispronounce Spanish words - hence the "L" sound at the beginning rather than a "Y" sound. The name was given by the conquistador Coronado, it translates as "the staked plain," referring (by legend) to the fact that the Spanish drove stakes into the ground to mark where they were, for lack of any natural landmarks."
Click here for upcoming shows and ticket info
more photos and a review of the show after the jump....
the main room downstairs
upstairs stage
we don't know if we were happy to see people smoking or annoyed
upstairs gallery
Opening act, the Icelandic Nix Noltes
animal collective
one of the 5 million hipsters in attendence
Animal Collective - Llano Estacado, 2.25.05
Review by Jeff Campbell
The opening band, Storsveit Nix Noltes, was pretty cool. They were from Iceland. There were like 9 people in the group (violin, cello, bass, trumpet, accordian, two or three guitars, and drums). To me, they sounded like traditional Hungarian folk music. It kind of reminded me of the Secret Chiefs 3's middle-eastern influenced melodies, but Nix Noltes seemed totally genuine and never really broke away from the traditional rhythms. Good stuff.
Animal Collective were a little disappointing, I thought. They were
really good, but I was hoping they would blow my mind or something.
Avey Tare had a cool delay effect on his voice, but it was like that
for their entire set. Same with the guitars...too spacey for my taste. I really enjoy the textures and harmonies on their records but there wasn't much of that last night. They were warmly received though... and it was a big crowd.
