Future Islands, Roundhouse, London review • DIY Magazine

If Future Islands were a football match, they’d be a Euro semi-final in which frontman Samuel T. Herring scores a hat-trick before performing an outrageous celebration in front of a worshipping home crowd. That’s how it feels tonight at the Roundhouse anyway, as hundreds of fans grow more and more ecstatic with every eccentric dance move or heartfelt roar from the man himself. For a band who perform songs about “helping out friends”, “holding on to hope“ and all the other mundanities between, they should on paper be lost in a sea of other synth-pop acts aiming for similar skies. Future Islands, however, have worked their asses off over the past several years for this, giving every show as much enthusiasm, passion and sweat as the one unfolding tonight. The only difference between then and now is that they’re rocking the stage they thoroughly deserve, and about time too.

On record, their songs haven’t always sounded lush and refined like in recent album ‘Singles’, but tonight even older tunes like ‘Walking Through That Door’ sound absolutely gigantic - every tune is unleashed and realised to its full potential. ‘Long Flight’ catapults its emotional intensity into overdrive while the bass line rips through hypnotising keys and Herring launches his whole self into it, while songs like ‘Lighthouse’ and ‘Back in the Tall Grass’ are attacked at full velocity, sounding fully prepped for the huge festival stages they deserve to shine on.

There's a satisfaction evoked along the lines of getting tucked into fresh bed sheets when the juxtaposition between the euphoric synths and Herring's full-on hardcore vocal hit. It's the highlight of the show without doubt - no other band manage to intertwine two polar opposites so effortlessly on record, let alone continue to push the boundaries of it live. It's a marvel to watch the energy explode furiously as Herring pounds his chest at the peak of 'A Song For Our Grandfathers', a feat that will surely define the entire set.

Having toured so extensively in the time they've been together, it's no surprise that Future Islands are such a tight live band. Tonight though they’re exploring many different shades - through the soulful slow-burning B-side 'Tonight' to the new, industrial-tinged track 'The Chase', they triumph at every twist and turn. Suddenly - not even half way through the set - the audience applauds as if they were playing their swan song, but they’re barely even warmed up. As they go stratospheric with 'Seasons (Waiting on You)' - the bass ramped up, those initial hook-y keys doing their thing - Samuel can barely contain his excitement. “Let’s fuck about!” he declares before throwing those signature shapes of his. No matter how many times you watch him, it’s always glorious. Despite the fact they're hundreds of shows in and have an extensive tour ahead, they're the opposite of exhausted. They're performing like they just stepped off that Letterman stage - mesmerising us all again for the very first time.