Future Islands
Collins Barracks, Dublin
★★★★☆
Less than a decade after striking it big following their memorable performance on The Late Show with David Letterman – and with six albums now under their belt – Future Islands have something of a returning-hero status at Collins Barracks on Thursday night. It’s certainly the biggest Irish headline show they’ve played since they first arrived in Dublin, in 2009, but in the courtyard of the National Museum, a cool summer breeze blowing across the cobblestones, Samuel T Herring and his bandmates seem unruffled. “We haven’t played in about five weeks,” Herring tells the crowd by way of introduction as they open with the sprightly For Sure. “Let’s kick off some rust!”
Future Islands come into their own live. Much of that – all right, most of that – is down to Herring’s presence. The frontman’s acrobatic stagecraft has laid him low in the past, most notably when he tore his meniscus while doing a knee drop in 2015, but it doesn’t hold him back. He delivers his first high kick within 30 seconds of the first song, while his lunges, crouches and sprints across the stage would put a gymfluencer to shame. His three bandmates seem indifferent (or are perhaps simply accustomed) to his vivacity.
After 17 years the synthpop band are approaching 1,400 shows together, according to Herring – but you’d be hard pushed to find another frontman who delivers songs with such expressive vocals and (literal) chest-thumping, floor-slapping passion. Plastic Beach, a song from their most recent album, 2020′s As Long as You Are, is delivered with the same ferocious, kinetic energy as Tin Man, from 2010′s In Evening Air. “We arrived in yesterday from the States, and I was feeling a little sleepy an hour ago,” he admits. “But this sh*t’ll wake you right up. Y’all should try it sometime!”
As the evening draws in and the sky grows darker, the audience gets louder and rowdier and Herring gets sweatier, yet he loses none of his enthusiasm. A Dream of You and Me is a big crowd-pleaser; Light House builds to an intense climax, and the band’s new song Deep in the Night, the first to be drawn from their forthcoming seventh album, gets its first live airing.
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It’s clear that the assembled throng have been waiting to hear one song, however – and when the opening strains of that 2014 breakthrough hit, Seasons (Waiting on You), filter through the speakers, an array of phones, pints and arms are held aloft in ecstasy. That song alone generates a minute-long ovation usually reserved for World Cup-winning soccer teams, and even Herring seems a little taken aback.
They close their 90-minute set with Little Dreamer, but if there’s a niggling suspicion that the band’s musical output can be a little one-note at times, Herring is such a compelling presence that he sells every song. It’s impossible not to be swept up in his earnest zeal. Tonight, at least, Future Islands have earned their stripes.
