A couple nights before Be the Riottt Festival (Review coming very very soon) Gregg and I rolled up to San Fran to catch Islands at the
Great American Music Hall. After a little patience we lucked out with a parking spot right out front. Once everything was situated we headed in to catch the tail end of Subtitle‘s set and get a good spot for the sold out show.
Islands has definitely stepped it up since the last time I saw them at the El Rey. The music has always been great but you can tell they’ve been on the road a while because they’re tighter than ever. With only Return to the Sea under their belt, they played a surprising amount of songs that aren’t featured on the album. Actually, I guess a songs are buried on the CD somewhere but I have a feeling a lot of people haven’t found them yet. One of the new tracks had a French title and lyrics and was one of my favorites of the night.
Other highlights were Subtitle jumping back on stage for “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Whalebone”, and the closing tracks, “Rough Gem” and “Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby”. There were some weird annoying sound glitches and beeps occasionally and it was nice to see Nick suck it up and get through it. A lot of performers would have been pissed if there mic went out for a verse. The crowd, including the large group of gals dancing up a storm in front of us, were enjoying every minute of it and singing along. It’s good to see Islands out there busting their asses, touring the world, writing new music, and playing great live shows. I’m curious when something new will come out. I think Nick said they were planning on recording some in a week or two when they got back to Montreal.
Knife, Jackie, Dustin, Gregg, and I all headed back to the truck and started slinging some cream. BurnLounge helped us out for this adventure so we handed out some pamphlets with the ice cream they helped bring on board. We were hoping to make a pit stop at another club that night to catch the Heavenly States but didn’t leave GAMH til almost 1:30. Before we left I said Hi! to the band and loaded up their bus for their trip to Los Angeles. How was the Fonda show? I know some of y’all made it.
