Gig: Islands

Islands (Gregory Pepper and His Problems / Toro Y Moi)

Mod Club. Saturday, November 7, 2009.

On a Saturday night that I already had a gig to go to, made a last-minute-ish decision to double up on the evening and take in the early-doors Mod Club show. Not that I was overwhelmingly enthused to go see Islands — I'd already not seen 'em once this summer, and for free to boot. In fact, I was almost entirely there for the opener, Jemina Pearl, ex of beloved food fight/zombie beach party rockers Be Your Own Pet.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways, long story short, I get there just before the 6:30 starting time, peruse the scene, and get this hinky feeling when three dudes take the stage. Not what I was expecting. When they introduced themselves as Gregory Pepper and His Problems, I was feeling a bit miffed. Not in the most neutral frame of mind to try and enjoy them instead of the opener I was expecting, but their own qualities didn't make that any easier. Billing themselves on their myspace as writing "dumb, catchy songs" I can at least say that's half right. When Eddie Murphy is who you're cribbing lyrics from/paying homage to ("My girl wants to party all the time") then maybe it's time for a re-think. I'm a firm believer in the wisdom of David St. Hubbins' remark about the fine line between clever and stupid¹ and this band simply fell on the wrong side. Faux classic rock grandiousity and an "ironic" lyrical sentiment — mostly reminiscent of the sort of band majors tried to market via mersh radio in the middle-late nineties. I could go on in this vein, but I shan't. Best to take a deep breath and move on.

After that, I figured most anything'd seem like a relief. So I tried to put on a brave face for Toro Y Moi, playing a one-man show with laptop and keyb. A 23-year-old out of South Carolina, Chaz did show musical range, building up from swirly loop-pop to dancier stuff, but none of it particularly struck me.

Which left me in a not-particularly-warmed-up state for Islands, with whom I'd gotten pretty severely out of touch with. I'd seen them touring their first album back in '06, opening for Metric², but the soggy, proggy lump of follow-up Arm's Way had severely turned me off. I'd passingly heard that there'd been a re-think and an essentially new band this time round. So, open mind, deep breath, etc. etc.

Nick Thorburn came out in oversized sunglasses and a silver-spangled cape, playing every inch the conquering space lord from a sci-fi b-movie. He was flanked by a pair of musicians, switching off between guit, bass and keybs who also looked as if their stage wear was inspired by Plan 9 From Outer Space. I squinted, trying to place them, until I realized that they were Geordie and Evan Gordon of The Magic. The band was completed by prodigal drummer Jamie Thompson — not wearing anything that sparkled — making for a full roster on the stage with no small amount of pop savvy. Playing the last show of their tour, the band didn't seem worn out and eager to be done — rather, we got the band in that "smoothly-oiled machine" phase.

The set started with four tracks from Vapours, establishing the new direction, and my immediate reaction was that going glam was a good move for this band. "No You Don’t" was particularly winning. The setlist mixed it up a bit more after that, with Arm's Way's "Creeper" actually fitting in quite nicely. There were a couple from the first album ("Where There's a Will There's a Whalebone" and "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby") interspersed among the new stuff. There were some nice textures in play like the Bowie-in-Berlin icy keybs³ of "On Foreigner" — not, it would seem, a discourse about Lou Gramm. Not everything was a smash — Vapours track "Heart Beat" felt like one trip too many to the same well of inspiration, and "The Arm" is still a little too ponderous for my taste. And towards the end, when Thorburn pulled out his falsetto, I blanked out a bit. But rather effective overall. Not surprisingly, "Rough Gem", in its clap-along live finery led off the encore and it all ended — right back at the beginning — with "Swans (Life After Death)".

So, given that I'd come in with pretty low expectations for Islands, I can easily say they were exceeded. Definitely some good stuff amongst the new material and Thorburn had far more stage presence than I remembered. After the disappointment of the opening act switcheroo, I managed at least to leave feeling like the night had scrapped its way back to a draw.⁴ And out in good time to head the my main gig of the night.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ He asserted that there was one.

² A show I mostly remember for being stuck behind a sold wall of mean-looking teenage girls who were smoking furiously.

³ Or, possibly inspired by Real Life's "Send Me an Angel", which could be seen as a bit of a Rosetta Stone to decode the sound of much of the new material. Oh man, did my sister ever listen to that song a lot in 1983 — it's branded in my neocortex. And I forgot how hilarious that video was — scarves! electronic drums! maidens in distress! the wolfman! Still — guit solo aside — fabulous track.

⁴ And just as a postscript, I sent a note to the promoters after the fact and was satisfied with their response — apparently they were as blindsided by the change as anyone else.