Islands – Hoxton Bar & Grill, London 26/02/08

Now Islands are a band I’ve been waiting to see again for quite some time I have to say. The first and only time before was during the summer of 2006 and I confess, I saw them completely unaware of their material because of my undying love for The Unicorns through the Nick Diamonds connection (I know I’m not the only one…). They played the rather dingy but charming and completely out of the way (well for me anyway) venue, Barden’s Boudoir, and the lasting memory I have of that evening was just how sweltering uncomfortable the heat was and the fact they came on stage at around 10.45pm (meaning this poor sucker had to leave early to catch the last westbound Silverlink train.)

This time, they come on at the more reasonable 9.30pm. After customary costume changes and white face-paint additions. They open with a trio of new songs ‘Vertigo (If It’s A Crime)’, ‘The Arm’ and ‘Creeper’, all of which sound completely intriguing and considered, and all from the upcoming album Arm’s Way. But due to the unfamiliarity of the tracks, leaves the crowd hushed and slightly cold. Did I mention it was freezing? Well, it was.

Only when the they kick into ‘Where There’s a Will There’s a Whalebone’ does the audience begin to seem more animated and proceedings really heat up. They drop other crowd-favourites such as wonderfully heart-felt ‘Volcanoes’ which erupts to an explosive finale, as Diamonds leads the chorus of “Things are going to change!”. Later they play the luscious ‘Don’t call me Bobby, Whitney’ and the crowd finally seem appeased and satisfied but something just lingered in the back of my mind though. The atmosphere was a little odd it has to be said. The band just seemed tired and not as tight as they should’ve been. There was no where near the banter that I had come to expect. (The pleas of “Rough Gem, please!” go unrequited. “Sorry. Forgotten how to play that one.”)

Perhaps it was because the crowd was filled with the soulless automaton known to science as the Hipstera Hoxtonus. Perhaps it was because they endured a couple of on stage problems with some broken guitar strings, a couple of stop-starts to songs and I swear I saw a glass next to some wires and an amp, collecting water from a broken air conditioner above stage! Didn’t look safe at all!

I’d love to catch them (yes again!) in a better venue, as I’m sure I’d appreciate it a lot more if I knew the new batch of songs beforehand. And I’m glad I finally saw them play a rowdy performance of the excellent ‘Swans’, their regular set-closer and a song I had to miss last time around. It shuffles, stutters and propels forward, picking up steam to the point of bursting until they finally cave in and pummel the Bar & Grill to submission.

Until the next time.

Links
Islands [myspace]