Halfway through Future Islands‘ set at Bristol’s Ashton Gate, I turned to my friend Chris with a half-pained look on my face.
‘What the hell is happening?’, I attempted to ask him. My words, however, were drowned out by a roar. I looked briefly to my left and saw a middle-aged man contorting his body around a microphone stand, gyrating wildly whilst crooning along to what appeared to be a baritone-draped take on some classic Eighties synth-pop.
Chris looked over at me and flashed a grin in my direction. We heard a ‘thump!’, and we turned our heads; the gyrating man had just fallen off the stage. We laughed, then turned to face each other.
Then, dear reader, he mouthed seven words that appear to quite neatly summarise precisely what a Future Islands show is – and should be – all about:
‘Who gives a shit? This is brilliant!’
I’ll say it again, because I cannot make this clear enough: Future Islands quite clearly Do Not Give A Shit.
In Samuel T. Herring, they have a frontman whose dance moves have been both lauded as having ‘the flair of an over-eager drama kid and the intensity of a metalhead’ and generously likened to ‘a hip-swivelling affair that could’ve come straight from the Wigan Casino’. In 2017’s The Far Field, they have an album that somehow manages to be critically acclaimed, yet still – whisper it – not terrible.
And as for their live show? Well, that’s something else entirely. It’s half-interpretive dance, half-synth-pop concert, with the occasional death metal roar thrown in for good measure; but, what it never becomes is dull. Despite taking place in the somewhat uninspiring confines of the turnstile area of Bristol’s Ashton Gate stadium, Herring and co. still manage to be nothing short of enthrallingly entertaining throughout the duration of their ninety minute set.
So, if you ever get the chance to head down to a Future Islands show, we think that you’d be foolish to turn it down.
You may be confused, and you may even be a little bit scared; but, dear reader, we can guarantee that you’ll have an unashamedly good time. After all, isn’t that what Future Islands are all about?
