Once again I got rant-y and pontificated in a preface that has little to do with the music. My hand was forced this time however. Islands' whiteface sporting leader, singer and guitarist, Nick Thorburn agreed too! And he wasn't the one getting pushed around. After the unstoppable force of the current single, the excellent pop wave of "Creeper" he called for calm. It wasn't but twenty minutes into the show.

"Be gentle" he said, clearly disgusted. "Not everyone signed up for that."

Moshing at Islands. You can't make this stuff up. The whole while I wondered about the state of mind of these louts. Did they simply get loaded beforehand and decide to catch a random show and expect it to be Rage Against the Machine? Perhaps circa 1996? I reckon they were lured by the rough and tumble sounding name of the band. Right.

The situation was horribly distracting. The sheer weirdness of their antics caused me to again consider whether Islands' karma in Denver needs a prompt tune up. The band must have the blood of a dead hooker on their hands or something. Something in this town is setting off the sinister forces of evil to taunt them. Those annoying dudes did end up getting the boot about six songs later. Six songs too late I say. Fittingly it was during "J'aime Vous Voire Quitter". The not so veiled named track from the upcoming Arm's Way that takes the name of former Island (and ex-Unicorn) J'aime Tambeur. Tambeur left the band the same night of their first show in Denver. Karma at work all around. I'll see if this aura of bad vibes surrounding the band is limited to Mile High city locales or is a more permanent, buzzkilling black cloud when I scope them out at Coachella this weekend.

Although the evening's preoccupation with ensuring my face would be free of flying elbows battled for a significant part of my attention, I still managed to tune into the show enough for a proper dispatch.

With seven new songs from the the new album, Islands' set heavily favored new material. Performances varied greatly in execution however. Second song "The Arm" followed opener "Flesh", an early unreleased Islands tune. A long extended intro wandered at times and I'm not 100% certian if there wasn't actually a separate instrumental track squeezed into what otherwise felt like the lead-in. The chosen bubbly ziz zag route ceased before turning into pure blistering bliss before the recognizable parts of the song began to finally leak through the speakers. Sounded great.

On the other hand one of my favorites from the new album, the sinful confessional of "I Feel Evil Creeping In", fell flat. Thorburn's singing failed to reach the nuanced playfulness of the record's chorus, sounding thin and barely audible. The lack of energy from the rest of the band wasn't exactly inspired either. I'm willing to give them a pass considering the tour just started and most of the new songs are barely fleshed out. Grain of salt for now.

The entire evening felt hit or miss. Felt like the necessary tonic for full launch into locked in mode was missing. That is, until the second song of the encore when Islands played their best song and finally, truly connected. (We swooned, no pun intended, over "Swans" during our early, still crawling days when the qualifier of "ex-Unicorns" was necessary in all mentions of their new reincarnation.)

"Swans" rocked really hard. To the point that 99% of the bad vibes and iffy moments of the night could be wiped out. It was that kind of performance. Like with everything in life impressions leave indelible marks. Thankfully for the Bluebird crowd, the band left with their best before exiting.

SETLIST:

Flesh
The Arm
Creeper
Where There's a Will There's a Whalebone (minus the rap)
Pieces of You
Volcanoes
I Feel Evil Creeping In
We Swim
J'aime Vous Voire Quitter
Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby
Abominable Snow

Encore:
Red Football (Sinead O'Connor cover)
Swans

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