Nick Diamonds has had it rough with this whole rock band thing. First his breakout act Unicorns dissolves very quickly after its rise to indie-success, and then after just one great album from his surviving band Islands, his co-songwriter/drummer up and calls it quits. But like his mantra “Islands are Forever” insinuates, he presses on. And now touring to build up some excitement for a new album being recorded as a manifestation of that onward press, Islands came to Brooklyn last week with a couple other Montreal acts for a night of crazy pop madness.

Sister Suvi: This was the guitarist of Islands’ “other band,” consisting of a basic drummer guitarist bassist along with a very unique woman playing ukulele and violin as well as offering her very forward backup vocals. This band was unquestionably interesting. I see an Islands/Danielson/Lovely Feathers/Man Man combination of some sort, though a bit less exciting than any of these acts. The songs were repetitive but loaded with quirks, both musical and lyrical, such as the chorus of ‘New Orange Bike’: “I am the hottest motherf***er in this room, look at my new bike, look at my new bike.” In all honesty, that lyric is pretty much the one thing I remember best about their set and if you are the type who would like them then that line was enough to make you check them out. The song’s on their myspace.

SOCALLED: Jewish rapper with a drum machine, an accordion, a trumpet player and a guitarist at his side doing self-aware stand-up-esque raps in both English and Yiddish. Has worked with Matisyahu (shock me). Funny. Annoying. Okay.

Islands: They fill the stage with their as-usual all white outfits, Nick Diamonds on guitar/vox, two almost identical Asian men switching keyboard/violin duties, a drummer, a lead guitarist, and a bassist who looked like he should be playing in a Reggae-Dub act. They opened up with “Swans,” and when Nick went to sing the first line he began coughing and had to delay the intro, immediately setting a bad omen. I must admit, that first song was just weak, which is sad since it may be my favorite, and it’s 10 minutes long. They followed it with a new song that was equally as uncomfortable as “Swans” had been, and I got scared: would this be a horrible disappointment? And then, swinging in to my rescue, came the song “Volcanoes,” far too awesome in its own right to fail me, and indeed it was pretty wonderful. From there each song got progressively more fun and awesome, Nick (and the gang) gained confidence and began putting on the wonderfully fun pop fantasy night I had expected. It was an evening of 14 songs total, two encores, two covers, and four new songs. The new material was pretty good, not a huge diversion musically, still poppy but a bit more melancholy and less upbeat. Then there was one new song, titled for my purposes “Space Space Space,” which was around 10 minutes long, extremely dynamic, dark, different, and fantastic. If this song is a barometer for Islands’ sophomore record, consider me very excited. The formal set ended with a great rendition of crowd-pleaser “Rough Gems,” and then the encore began with happy-go-lucky calypso tune “Don’t Call Me Whitney Bobby,” immediately forcing all audience members into a simultaneous island dance. From there came “Renaud”, which is apparently a very rare song in Islands’ live show due to its mellow and personal nature, and it was beautiful and sad and a great way to end the night. That is, except for the fact that Islands did a second encore, starting with a cover of “Monster Mash” and moving straight into “Humans,” preparing the audience for battle and then sending us out into the night ready to vanquish our ambiguous enemies for days to come. It was a rough start, and I must say Nick Diamonds is not the bubbly character one would except from his writing, but by the end of the show I was thinking nothing but great things about his band. Good luck with the new album Nick. Islands are forever.

Islands Setlist:

Swans
New Song
Volcanoes
New Song “Smoke gets in your eyes”
New Song “Life in Jail”
Jogging Gorgeous Summer
Waterloo Sunset (Kinks Cover)
Ones
New Song “Space Space Space”
Rough Gems

Encore 1
Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby
Renaud

Encore 2:
Monster Mash (Cover)
Humans

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