Brightest Young Things

all photos: the "always sorely missed in DC" Bao Nguyen (from the Webster Hall show, via assignement for Brooklyn Vegan)

Thursday night was beautiful, the crowd was having a good time...music nerds everywhere UNITE!

If you haven’t heard the Unicorns or if you miss them, the Islands do their mother-band proud. This off-shoot knows what’s going on, on the beach, in the sand, on your imaginary yacht…these poor-little-rich-boys created a pity-perfect, jazz lounge.

In their latest album they experiment with more sounds both instrumentally and abstractly. If you haven’t heard ‘Arms Way’ – you are missing out. These boys managed to skip the sophomore slump and delivered a beautifully mastered whirlwind of percussion, cool guitar riffs, jazzy rock, and Killers-like dance-ability. The use of chains on Vertigo and Life in Jail added depth that was missing on the album version.

Opening after a less than stellar Magic, The Islands popped on-stage with Vertigo, Arm’s Way’s closer and longest song (and Arm’s Way’s closer), yet at eleven minutes – but with its spooky Ohh’s and varying tempo I don’t think anyone realized that they had been playing the same song for that long. I know I didn’t until they fell into The Arm (“came for you”) – a catchy pop tune.

The single, Creeper had everyone jovial and bouncy, despite its seeming darker subject matter - Creeper in my home, crawled in the window/I grabbed a kitchen knife, couldn’t stick it in though- could be the next best break up song, if it didn’t sound so happy. The steel drum used live just added to the island feel.
They kept the crowd entertained with more gypsy/calypso – pop-rock including not-so-old favorites ‘Don’t call me Whitney, Bobby’ and new ones ‘Pieces of You’ (not to be confused with Ashlee Simpson’s song of the same title – thank you, lord Jesus) , who doesn’t like discussing the bones they found last week? After hearing about a creeper? Or maybe you needed to hear one more despondent groan to a pop beat before feeling the conflicting upset-after-a-break-up and leaving-home-for-college-excitement.

‘Kids don’t know Shit’ and ‘Abominable Snow’ rise up and down at the same tempo and both call to someone who’s not there, but put on a happy face to do it. These new hits seem to be reaching out, even if not on purpose, to a younger crowd – one that may begin dancing to their melancholy anthems.

“They didn’t build this city on Rock and Roll, they built it on…well, I don’t know what they built it on…”

And away they went, onto their two-song short, but much anticipated encore. ‘Swans’ perked up the bunch. This seemed to be just the right touch to a night full of joyful sounds and sad words…wait, no, that’s wrong they ended-ended with ‘To a Bond’ – and they were “gone out in the dark.”

Previously in Live DC:

• 5/24: LiveDC: The Adicts @ RNR Hotel
• 5/24: LiveDC: The Donkeys @ Black Cat
• 5/23: LiveDC: The Barr Brothers w/ Kishi Bashi @ The Hamilton
• 5/23: LiveDC: Damien Jurado @ Black Cat
• 5/23: Report: Soundbites 2012
• 5/22: LiveDC: Spirit Animal @ Red Palace
• 5/22: LiveDC: Astra Via @ Black Cat
• 5/22: LiveDC: Father John Misty @ Rock & Roll Hotel
• 5/22: LiveDC: Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams @ Merriweather
• 5/22: Photos: Summer Camp takes the "Ladies of Town" Drag Show