Manhattan Islands

Preface: I really can't believe I had to sell an extra ticket to this show. What's wrong with you people? For Christ's sake, it's Nick and J'aime.

So... as you can tell, I attended the Islands show at the Knitting Factory last night, and boy, what a pleasure it was. After buying the tickets, I had been a little wary, expecting the boys from the Unicorns to break my heart by adding the whole rap element into their music. This was at least what I had gathered after listening to the bootlegs from Pop Montreal and the Bell Center. Anyway, let's give this thing some order, and start from the top.

Opener: The Isles. Yes. I know what you're thinking. We all did. The kid who almost got kicked out after bringing booze into the show actually asked them. I witnessed this. No... they have nothing to do with Islands, other than the fact that their name sakes are both landmasses surrounded completely by water. That's about the end of the similarity. Honest to goodness. So going on about 9 o'clock, the aforementioned took the stage. On the whole, they were adequete, decent, etc., etc., but pretty vanilla if I had to quantify them. They played some good pop rock songs, trying their best to switch up their styles, playing a slow song, and taking a stab at a psychadelic song. (At the conclusion of which, the guitarist said "I don't know if that one's too psychadelic. It sounds pretty poppy to me". I think that about sums them up.) They did have a good time up on stage, even though they knew no one came for them. They even
told jokes between sets. One reason for this was the prodding from the audience, the other is that they tuned between each song because every song was capoed. But here's a sampling; it got the inner geek in me chuckling: "A neutron walks into a bar... He asks the bartender for a cold, frosty brew. The bartender gets the neutron his cold, frosty brew. The neutron says, "Thank you, but what do I owe you for this cold, frosty brew?" To which the bartender replied, "For you, no charge."

After a long set change time with lots of people moving things about, it was finally time for Islands. First, a man clad all in white, whom we would later learn goes by the name of Patrick, started playing short bursts of dischord out of his bass clarinet. And yes, I did just say bass clarinet. The dischord ushered in Nick, J'aime, and 4 other members of the band, including two asian violinists/recorder player. They were all decked out in white. All of the songs that were played, of course, are all new, as in they have yet to be recorded (outside of the second encore, which I'll get around to in a bit). The new stuff is great though, and like I said before, it seems as though they've abandoned the rap thing, which is utterly delightful. It would be agonizing to see something that could be so good turn bad, but luckily it looks like a crisis has been averted by the sheer will of the gods. The highlight of the regular set was "Ruff Gem." The song had originally been a Unicorns song that was played at their last show in Houston, before it had a title. I'm happy to see that it, at least, didn't die with the Unicorns, as it's a wonderful song. Syncopated clapping was added, and the whole audience was really into it. Even one of the "Chow Brothers", i.e. the violinists, was dancing about in his own awkward way. There were a rift or two during the set, like when Nick had trouble switching to his electric acoustic guitar. But all was saved when the Chows played a "Turkey in the Straws" duet after a drunken scream from the audience demanded a violin solo. By the end of the set, all seemed normal. Islands came back for an encore and played a rendition of Paul Simon's "Graceland". And then they left. However, the house lights did not go on, nor did the house music. We were truly in for a treat of epic proportions. After a few minutes wait, just Nick and J'aime reentered onto the stage. Nick practically apologized before playing, saying "This wasn't my idea, the other guys said we should do this," and that they hadn't played this song since they recorded it.

So now you've probably narrowed the song down to two. If you're good enough that is.

That's right, they played my favorite recorded Islands song, "Abominable Snow," with no perceptible errors even. It was a fairly ridiculous way to end the night, and I was more than pleased that I spent the 26 odd dollars on the night out into the city. I mean, who needs to study for physics anyway?

So... If you missed the boat a few months ago, here are the two recorded Islands songs:

Abominable Snow
Flesh

Sorry for not having any pictures. I don't have a camera, and Ross didn't go to this one, so I got nothing.

Look forward to seeing reviews of the other two shows we went to this past weekend. Rogue Wave at Bowery and Ted Leo/Rx at Webster Hall. I figured I'd write about this one first because it's still fresh in my mind, and I don't have anyone to corroborate the story with if I forget anything.

Islands MySpace
The Isles
And all you ever needed to know at Islands Wikipedia entry, including info on their upcoming debut album. I shit you not.

By the way, there were apparently two prepubescent girls who got their father drive them there. They thought that Islands was some sort of cover and that it was really a secret Fall Out Boy concert. That definitely made me laugh.