I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 10, 2019] Of Monsters and Men

Back at Christmas 2011, S. bought me the debut albums by Of Monsters and Men and The Head and the Heart.  I instantly fell in love with both bands (and sometimes can’t tell who is who when I hear one of their songs).  This concert might help me distinguish but we’re also seeing The Head and the Heart in the same venue in a month.

But maybe the spectacle of this show will help me distinguish them.

Because it was a wonderful spectacle.

I love thinking about how this band of six or seven musicians from Iceland somehow conquered the world with their singalong anthems.  It’s also fascinating to me that they only released their third album this year.

I really like the new album.  It sounds a bit different (more synthy, poppy) but it remains very OMAM.

They played a lot from the new album which was fine. In fact, they played 19 songs in total, spanning all of their records, but focusing mainly on their first and third releases.

S. and I arrived at the Met Philly early enough for me to try to get Hozier tickets (it hadn’t sold out last week and I was trying to save Ticketmaster fees–but it was sold out).  We headed up to the GA section.  I initially thought I bought seats, but evidently not.  I had not been on the floor there before, and it was a pretty good experience.  The floor is quite large.  I believe the show was sold out (maybe not), but when we arrived there was ample room on the floor.  In fact, I thought we’d be late and I said I didn’t need to try to get up close like I normally do.  But even without trying we were still really close to the stage.

This was S.’s first time there (my second) and we both agreed that the architecture is stunning and the sound is excellent.  I knew the sound was great from the previous show, but it was also great from the floor, which is a good deal.

The backdrop was a big painted eye (the album cover) and they came out to bright lights and a great sound, opening with the new album’s first single “Alligator.”  It was really cool hearing Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir (dressed in a very nifty, comfy-looking red jumpsuit) and realizing just how great her voice is.

Up next was “Empire” (one of three songs from their second album) with lead vocals by Ragnar Þórhallsson (dressed in an oversized T-shirt and I assume OMAM Fever Dream sweatpants–I could read the word Fever on them).  Ragnar has a unique voice and it was really cool to hear that it sounds the same way live.

They returned to the new album for “Ahay.”  I realized that I don’t know the new songs all that well, but each song has a component that I really like.  In this one it’s the chorus.

Then they started playing songs from their debut.  And apparently I don’t know the names of any of their songs and none of the names are what I think the song might be called.  So “King and Lionheart” sounded amazing, but I had no idea that that’s what it is called.

When they started “Mountain Sound” the song that could be called (Hold your horses now (We sleep until the sun goes down)), well, who cared what it was called because we all went crazy singing along.  And when a whole room of people is singing along you realize just how great a big popular show can be.

We were standing in front of bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson and drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson.  They were excellent at getting people to clap and sing along.  I especially enjoyed watching Hilmarsson get up and walk around his kit while clapping up a storm.  They were great fun and were totally infectious.  I knew about the sing-along parts of course but wasn’t sure how into it the crowd would be.  Well, they were very into it, which made it all the more fun.

The other thing that really surprised me about the show was the show itself.  They had a pretty amazing stage construction.  Terrific lights that did all kinds of things.  The rigs went up and down, they arced into different angles, there were lots of colors.  There were also lights on the sides which were used to dramatic effect.  I assumed that this show would be kind of a folky fun sing-along.  I never guessed that it would be a full-on performance.

After playing the big sing-alongs, they played three new songs in a row.  As I said, I like the new songs, although they are very different from the older ones. They don’t really have the big brash sing along choruses as the older songs.  But they are still good in different ways.

First was the dancey “Wars” followed by the less dancey, but still electronic-sounding (with nifty backing vocals played on the synth) “Wild Roses.”  This song has a few different parts that work together really well.

It was followed by “Under a Dome,” a slow song that Ragnar sings.   He was pretty passionate about it but I feel like the crowd was lost somewhat during this song.  The same was true for “Slow and Steady.”  I didn’t quite recognize it and although the ending “whoa oh” part was fun to sing along to, this middle part of the set felt like a bit of a drag.  Pretty, but draggy.

“Wolves Without Teeth” picked things up a bit, but it was the lovely “Crystals” that really brought everyone back to the fun of the band. Then after one more new song, “Soothsayer,” a good rocking song with great guitar leads from Brynjar Leifsson, they moved on to the big hits.

Three songs in a row from the debut, each one with a bigger chanting section (and none of them with titles I knew).

“Lakehouse” was great.  It got bigger and bigger with each verse.  We all sang along to the “where we are, where we are” part.  Then came “Little Talks” (Hey!).  Even though I have this album and like these songs very much I never bothered to learn the titles.   I never would have guessed that this was called “Little Talks.” (Hey!) The room exploded with light and everyone yelling hey!  More impressively, everyone seemed to know all the words to the song (I know some but can’t figure out all of them), which is always fun (as long as the crowd is not louder than the band, which we weren’t).

I assumed that was the set ender, but then they played “Six Weeks” (again, I had no idea that that’s what the name was) and boy did we ever clap along and get involved in the huge “whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh” parts.

They left for an encore break and I was rather tickled that it was only 9:45 (I was initially alarmed that the show started so early as I didn’t think we’d arrive in time, but we did, and that early show time on a Tuesday night was much appreciated).

During the encore break, S and I tried to guess what they hadn’t played and we couldn’t think of what was missing.

I had seen ahead of time that Of Monsters and Men played four songs in their encore (but I refused to see what songs they were–no spoilers!).   I love a multi-song encore if only for the fact that I hate when people chant “one more song!” especially if I know a band is prone to do three or four.

When they came back out, they did a thing that I’ve noticed a lot of bands are doing lately.   They start a multi-song encore with a new song.   And a slow song at that.  I always assume the encore is meant to be a rousing send off.  But I guess it’s also a good time to start fresh with a quiet song.  So Nanna came out and sat down on the edge of the stage (where none of us could see her) and sang the lovely ballad, “Waiting for the Snow” with minimal accompaniment.  This really showed off how beautiful her voice is.

Then they started the song that we couldn’t believe we’d forgotten–Dirty Paws (La La La…La la la la!).  I really can’t believe they have had so many hits  I also never knew the name of this song was because the chorus is pretty much “La La La…La la la la!”  But it was so much fun to sing along with it.  It features a lovely piano section from Steingrimur Karl Teague.  I never really saw him during the show, but he contributed so much with the piano and accordion.

So surely that would be the end, right?  I mean, we sang our hearts out.

Nope, it was time or one more slow song from the new album.  This was the pretty, “Sleepwalker.”  It starts slow but picks up, and yet it doesn’t have any real sing-along parts.  Once again, the encore seems like a strange place for it.  But mostly I was mostly upset because they played 8 songs from the new album, but not my favorite song, “Róróró.”   When he announced that the song was off thew new album, I was sure it was going to be “Róróró.”  This song has the best hook on the whole album and it is surprisingly overlooked both as a single and in concert.   They need to know that that song is fantastic.

They ended the show which a song I didn’t recognize at all.  It’s the final track on the debut album.  It’s also very slow.  Do they not understand what an encore is supposed to be?  Well, actually they know exactly how an encore works.  Because “Yellow Light” starts off slow but it builds and builds with more and more instrumentation.  The ending jam is all instrumental so it gives Ragnar and Nonna a chance to get away from their mics and walk to the edge of the stage to wave to everyone.  Which they did (although Ragnar seemed to to go to the other side a lot more than ours–sour grapes).  But they both came around and waved and were greeted with cheers.

The song has a long outro that gets louder and louder (with the lights going berserk, getting brighter and brighter).  And while everyone was having a grand old time jamming on stage, Nonna climbed out into the crowd.  Well, I guess technically she climbed near the crowd.  There was a guard rail in front of the front row and I think she may have climbed on that, but either way, that was pretty neat.  By the way, I love dthe lighting that the band used, but i feel like the overall lighting at the Met was a little dark.  It was surprisingly hard to see Ragnar and Nonna when they left their mics, and there was no spotlight on her when she came out to the crowd.  Weird.

After waving to us, she got back on stage, and climbed up by the drums.  The band got louder and it seemed like she and everyone else was banging on percussion for a huge ending.

It was pretty magnificent.

And then I get to concede my ages and say how wonderful it was that the show was over by a little after 10.  I love to have a great show, but to have a great, satisfying show and to be done by 10 is tremendous.

Now, major negatives for The Met for not removing the barrier to the GA area, thus forcing us all into a bottleneck (which was further blocked by the tool who was standing in the way drinking every last drop from his beer–jerk).   By the time we finally got through the bottleneck, we exited into the lobby in what is clearly a nightmare of setup )whoever thought of this should be fired).  The merch table and the women’s bathroom are placed right next to each other.  So as we exited the theater, we were crushed by a line of people trying to buy merch, a line of women waiting to get into the bathroom and a bunch of women trying to get out of the bathroom.  Good lord.

I swear it took us 6 minutes to get out of the building.

But it was a Tuesday night which meant light traffic–and even with the Girard Avenue exit closed, we still managed to get home by 11:30.  That’s the dream, right?

SETLIST

1. Alligator ℘
2. Empire ⇓
3. Ahay ℘
4. King and Lionheart ♣
5. Mountain Sound ♣
6. Wars ℘
7. Wild Roses ℘
8. Under a Dome ℘
9. Slow and Steady ♣
10. Wolves Without Teeth ⇓
11. Crystals ⇓
12. Soothsayer ℘
13. Lakehouse ♣
14. Little Talks ♣
15. Six Weeks ♣

    Encore:

16. Waiting for the Snow ℘
17. Dirty Paws ♣
18. Sleepwalker ℘
19. Yellow Light ♣

♣ My Head is an Animal (2011)
⇓ Beneath the Skin (2015)
℘ Fever Dream (2019)