11 March 2006

Islands @ Webster Hall - 11 March 2006

The crowd was young (at least towards the front) and there to see Metric. Not me - no sir. Me and the crew I roll with went to see Islands. It was the same crew that I saw Islands with before, plus two more. See? Their audience has already grown since last time they were in town. That time we were all caught off guard by how excellent Islands were. Unfortunately for them, this time we had some expectations.

Well, they brought the goods once again. The wonder that existed when I saw them for the first time wasn't there this time but the band was just as excellent. Nick came out singing the first song sitting on someone's shoulders and draped in a huge black cloak. It was very Dread Pirate Roberts. Soon after that me and my friend Mike both called out a request for a song. The song is "I Feel Evil (Creeping In)" and we first heard it at the show in December. It's such a good song that we've been singing the chorus for months without really having a copy of it to listen to, so we just couldn't help asking for it. When they got to the song in their set list I was a little sad to hear that they'd changed things up a bit and taken some of the punch out of it. Regardless, it's still an awesome song. You can find a version of it from a show in Philly below.

All in all, I think Islands played about 9 songs before giving way to the unbearably bland Metric. Many in our group got t-shirts and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were selling copies of their soon-to-be released album Return to the Sea. Super-dorks Mike and myself both bought copies of the album and got Jaime to sign them. We left entertained and proud. I can't wait to see them again when they return on a tour that they headline which shouldn't be very long after the album is released. If you like intelligent and interesting (and semi-exotic) indie pop, go see Islands when they come to your part of the world.

Funny Webster Hall fact: one Coke cost as much as one Budweiser ($5).

Interesting Return to the Sea fact: the cover features art by one of my very favorite artists ever, Caspar David Friedrich.

Previous EF posts about Islands HERE and HERE.

Listen:
"I Feel Evil (Creeping In)"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds great Matt...though I like Metric. At first I wasn't super big on the Islands album but it has grown a bit since.

Anonymous said...

Hey Ear Farm, first time to the site, digging it. I loved Islands as well on Friday, they're an eccentric bunch and I look forward to Neil's return in April.

I rather enjoyed Metric though--really didn't expect to at all, and maybe that's why I was all the more impressed, but I thought it was the best show I'd seen at Webster in a looong time.

Cool to see you were there! Cheers.