Daydreaming on the Islands of the Future — Future Islands at Kino Metropol in Celje (2011)
Location: Celje / Kino Metropol / Slovenia
Concert date: 14.07.2011
Attendance: 60
Ticket price: €10.00
The fired-up This Fire crew and their indie rock Friday nights at Kino Metropol in Celje remain the one constant for anything different on the live scene in Slovenia’s third-largest city, where turbofolk and ex-Yugo pop-star concert attractions sadly rule the roost.
After the excellent May show by The Crookes, we Celje folks got another international name: American minimalist post-wavers Future Islands packed out the cozy little club space in the cinema lobby.
The fact that I can use the verb „packed” is down to the Buba Booking&Promotion crew, who also brought along thirty or so of the band’s fans from central Slovenia.
The modest stage setup suited the Baltimore trio perfectly. The pretty static positioning of keyboardist J. Gerrit Welmers and bassist William Cashion left plenty of room for singer
Samuel T. Herring, who delivered his lyrical stories with just the right dose of stage drama and built a fantastic connection with the enthusiastic crowd.
The minimalist electronic backbone, with a nicely gritty drum machine pumping out the pleasant sound of a vintage Roland 808 and ambient-leaning keyboards, feels danceable and dreamy at the same time. On top of that sits a melodic yet rhythmically super-effective bass guitar (at times reminiscent of Peter Hook’s playing in New Order) that doesn’t shy away from the odd distorted harmony either.
But the flawless playing of the instrumentalists is just the foundation for Sam Herring’s incredible vocals, which proved he’s among the greatest masters of his genre.
His vocal expression covers an unimaginable range, from quiet whispering through committed storytelling to raw, bouncing screams, from guttural gurgling to high falsettos. It’s all in service of telling his stories of a harmonious man squeezed between the emotional and material realities of the modern world.
Future Islands played an emotional show that, with a warmed-up crowd, practically begged for an encore. The guys tore themselves out of the crowd’s embrace and headed up to the cinema’s former balcony to cool off a bit. They came back and played three more songs with real dedication, clearly used to small rooms and heated atmospheres, going all out just like we expected from them.
In the hot atmosphere of the small Celje concert space, the well-oiled Baltimore trio presented a one-of-a-kind vision of modern music with the spirit of eighties pioneering electronica. They’re definitely a band whose work we’ll be keeping a very close eye on.
In a future whose islands will dance and live out their dreams (also) to the music of Future Islands.
photo: Future Islands
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