This past Thursday, I went to Amoeba Records in Hollywood for a free show to see Future Islands, a new-wave/ electronic trio from Baltimore that emerged sometime around 2006 and whose latest album, In Evening Air, was released in early May. I am not hard to convince to attend a free concert, at Amoeba nonetheless, but the experience seeing this group live was quite unexpected. To quote one of my friends that came along, the guys in the group look more like accountants than musicians; however, upon taking the stage, the lead singer pretty much stunned every onlooker with the amount of passion and vein-popping intensity he put into his performance. In some ways he reminded me of some sort of broadway musical antagonist, in others he seemed to be an 80’s punk rocker trapped in the body of a man going through a mid-life crisis. I was left pretty unsure about how I felt about this group, but nevertheless anyone who puts that much passion and energy into putting on a show has my respect. The music itself, in my opinion, is much better recorded than it is live; I quite enjoy listening to songs like “Walking Through That Door” and “In The Fall” on my iPod, and I fear the lead singer’s over-exuberance detracted from the quality of the songs. Their music is worth giving a try, it definitely caters to a very specific demographic but I will let you all decide for yourselves.
