“Cover your crystal eyes,
and feel the tones that tremble down your spine…”
– Of Monsters and Men’s “Crystals,” from their upcoming album “Beneath the Skin”
The layered tones, the theatrical lights, and the buzzing of two thousand fans packed into Echostage Tuesday night was something that did send some form of tremble through your being. This was the sold out Of Monsters and Men show, the second stop on their (mostly Sold Out) North America tour.
If you closed your eyes, you might think you were at the 9:30 Club. It was like a strange sense of deja vu that’s just a little bit off. But when you looked around, the massiveness of the show boggled the sense– this was indeed a highly anticipated indie concert, but we were all at Echostage.
What’s usually the scene of light gloves and bassdrops, Echostage temporarily transformed into a huge cavern of rumbling drums and haunting vocals as the Icelandic and Norwegian bands Of Monsters and Men and Highasakite took us to a new world of feels.
With a thick purple ponytail that perched high on her head, Ingrid Helene Haavik led Highasakite through an all too quick opening set. They haven’t released a new album since last year, but there were plenty of fans singing along to their new cover of Bon Iver’s “Heavenly Father” and “Since Last Wednesday” from the 2014 album “Silent Treatment.”
As fans either fell in love with Highasakite for the first time, or all over again, it was nice to see on Haavik’s Instagram account that she loved D.C. right back:
After a 30-minute wait for the headliners, Of Monsters and Men, who are arguably in their biggest year, a series of silhouetted figures sauntered to their places on stage with their instruments.
It was a mythical entrance, as the black and white textured projection and the still-dark stage didn’t reveal anyone’s face. All we could see was the outline holding a trumpet, or sitting down at a set of drums, or as a sentinel behind the keyboards. With both the band and the touring members, there were 9 musicians on stage. What otherworldly performance did OMAM have in store?
And then, white light timed to the gripping vocals of Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir washed over everyone. Traversing, questioning, and pulsing songs amazed us from their upcoming album “Beneath the Skin” being released June 9.
A couple songs in, Hilmarsdottir thanked the crowd.
“Those two songs were from the new album,” she said in a delicately-accented voice. “And we want to play old and new, so now you might know this one.”
And just like that, we were all clapping as we were thrown back into 2012’s “Mountain Sound.”
It was like we were simultaneously experiencing both an intimate show and an epic saga, but set to stellar visual and sound production.
OMAM bounced us back and forth between the chantings of their well-known guitar-heavy songs, and then surprised everyone with new creations we haven’t heard before– and that were several shades more menacing.
We could hear the emotion in Hilmarsdottir’s beautiful voice as she sang a song of fear and insecurities through their new song “I Of The Storm”:
I am a stranger
I am an alien
Inside a structure
Are you really going to love me
When I’m gone
With all my thoughts
And all my faults
I feel it biting
I feel it break my skin
So uninviting
She’s no damsel in distress though. Moving from harmonizing vocals, to pounding a floor tom tom drum, and then picking up her acoustic guitar– Hilmarsdottir became more and more the powerful force leading the OMAM charge.
“This is a new one, but I am not going to say its name,” baited co-singer-guitarist Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson. “You have to guess it.”
It was a show of both newness and nostalgia. Each turn was into a lush new texture of sights and sounds. And when a new song repeatedly rang out out, “and you can follow me,” we were all eager to keep exploring together.
“You want some more songs?” razzed Hilmarsdottir when the band returned to the stage for their encore, before jumping into “Dirty Paws.”
The crowd at this point was of course dancing and chanting along every word for the most recognized song “Little Talks,” which was complete with a trumpet solo. Despite the signs posted around the venue from the band, security had to keep asking fans to stop recording video with their phones.
Before the night was done, drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson snapped some cell-phone pictures of the crowd from the stage as Hilmarsdottir thanked everyone, calling it a “really fun night.”
After one last new song, the whole group locked arms, banding together, and bowed in unison before waving goodbye.
Certainly, in that human moment, they were more civilized than the monsters of their name.
Blog by Cristina Rayas, Photos by Toby Mues