Review: Future Island in Dublin 'a finely-tuned outpouring of performative histrionics'

Springsteen fans often speak of leaving their idol’s shows feeling several feet taller than when they entered. A similar dynamic is at play with Future Islands, a positively-vibrating synth pop outfit led by a frontman who elevates silly dancing into a life-affirming compaect with his audience.

Samuel T Herring is certainly cut from man-of-the-people cloth. At the venue formerly known as Donnybrook rugby stadium, he wobbled, thumped his chest and, at one point, wrestled a monitor out of the way so that he could be closer to his people. This may be a shtick but there was no quibbling with its effectiveness as Herring toiled tirelessly to tear down the boundary between performer and audience.

It helped that the Future Island’s music is briskly effervescent. New Order-style retro electronica collided with slaloming guitars, Herring’s’ blinding grin the sprinkling on top. The cumulative impact was like watching the Teletubbies front a new wave covers band — a proposition as cheering as it was absurd.

Future Island have one enormous hit, ‘Seasons (Waiting On You)’, with which they famously reduced David Letterman to gasps performing on his TV show in 2014.

However they refuse to be defined by the track — which happily sounds of a piece with the rest of their catalogue — and, in Donnybrook, dealt with it respectfully yet without ceremony.

A tension meanwhile crackled between the slick electro-pop of ‘Little Dreamer’ and ‘Walking Through That Door’, and Herring’s penchant strangulated grunt. Occasionally he doubled over, huffing furiously. It was showboating without ego, a finely-tuned outpouring of performative histrionics.

There was politics too. “This song is about the American dream,” is how Herring introduced ‘A Song For Our Grandfathers’. “It turns out the American Dream is just for white people.”

But even when making a serious point, he couldn’t stop smiling.

Dublin! Excited to play at Donnybrook Stadium today with Mercury Rev & Idles!! pic.twitter.com/5mc3AwIZ6T

— Future Islands (@futureislands) June 17, 2018