Sick But Good

Monday night at the Croc, Islands were sick---quite literally, as all the members of the band seemed to have caught a wittle cold. It makes sense that they'd be under the weather; those scrawny Québécois boys could stand to eat a sandwich or two. Even though they were relatively low-energy, they still put on a great show, and, probably due to the illness, they didn’t cop an attitude like they did the last time around. They did, however, wear all white again, though singer Nick Diamonds started off the set with a sky blue blazer that we would totally wear, except that it would probably make us look too girly. Nick was also wearing some capital-t tight white jeans, through which we could see both the outlines of his pockets and the fact that he dresses left.

Anyways, opener "Swans" built nicely and ended up having a much larger sound than on Return to the Sea, while "Volcanoes" threatened to dissolve into a full-fledged hootenanny. Over the course of the set, the band would play several new songs, none of which would've sounded out of place on the album. And that's a mixed bag. While we like Return to the Sea quite a bit, we don't want a rehashing of it whenever their new album comes out.

The band seems to be doing just fine with new drummer Aaron Harris, while the Chow brothers deftly handled the keyboards, recorder, harmony vocals, and violins. Set highlights included the brief, bone density-happy "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby" and the appearance of opening MCs Subtitle and Busdriver for the hip hop-heavy "Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone" [mp3]. We also liked every single time Patrick Gregoire---whose left nipple was erect the entire show---took the bass clarinet to his lush beautiful lips. For the encore, the band tore through the upbeat anti-diamond trade "Rough Gem" [mp3], got into a brief altercation with a fan who requested a song by The Unicorns (poor form to mention a musician's previous band), and then played another new song before Return to the Sea's sweet bonus track ("Bucky Little Wing") about making a new friend. Like the band itself claims, Islands are forever.

Photo care of Flickr / user Mike Connelly.