islands at the crocodile
The last time I saw Islands, a massive on stage audience dance party at Neumo’s stopped them from playing “Swans” [svr]. That was before J’aime Tambeur left the band, back when Nick Diamonds had shaggier hair and a bone necklace, and people still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that Unicorns were a massive hallucination.
This time, they prevent well-intentioned rowdiness from robbing them of their chance to play their epic rebirth saga by opening with it. The Crocodile is split in half with an orange safety fence with the under twenty-ones penned in near the bar. It’s a goofy configuration, but at least give the alcoholics in the room a chance to press up against the stage just like the kids next door. While none of the older crowd can top the sweet karate dance moves by a guy on the other side of the fence, the dueling violin hoedown in “Volcanoes” works a little bit of awesome on for everyone.
The set included a lot of new or unreleased material (including a cover of Def Leopard’s cover of the Kinks’s “Waterloo Sunset” and “Abominable Snow”, the leaked all over the internet Sasquatch anthem), which raises expectations for the next album. Return to the Sea is likely to rank among my favorites of 2006, and the new songs sounded great and felt slightly more personal and emotionally accessible than Diamonds’s usual cryptic yet addictive storytelling anthems. Regardless of one’s familiarity with new or old songs, there is plenty to entertain onstage. In addition to being awesome rock violin players who wear NES beltbuckles, the brothers Chow continually pull new soundmakers out of some sort of magic box: an ivory recorder, a tin can, tambourines, and shakers of various configurations. No wonder they have their own T-shirt! There is also a shaggy-haired bass clarinetist (Patrick Gregoire), a guest appearance by Subtitle.
Nick is fairly quiet until about halfway through the set, when he makes small talk about our beach volleyball partitioning, warning the drunkards among us of shark attacks as a segue into synthy calypso “Tsuxiit”. They save “Rough Gem” for the encore, leaving us all hungry for the addictive track that is possibly about the horrors of the international diamond trade from the perspective of the stone (or is just a riff on the singer’s stagename).
Pleas from the audience for an infinite number of extra songs go unheeded, but Nick seems to appreciate the sentiment, partially blaming his suspicion that we hated them on a healthy dose of self-loathing. Also denied is a request to play some songs from that fictional band that never existed. The one that he now likens to a fast food restaurant. And really, what else can one expect for bringing up a painful breakup in the heart of an encore?
Instead, the show ends with a new song about a friend who becomes an enemy and the warm, upbeat,hidden track about making a new friend. It’s probably all really symbolic. It was definitely a great show and we can all be thankful that Islands are forever.
Some links might be of interest:
- Listen to songs, befriend the band [myspace]
- An essential interview with Nick Diamonds from this summer [pitchfork]
- A setlist and highlights reel of last night’s show [slog]
