When you hear “Icelandic folk rock” you may think it sounds like a very niche style of music that wouldn’t play outside of a tiny coffee house. Of Monsters and Men beg to differ.
The troupe returned to Los Angeles after six years away to a sold out Hollywood Palladium, and a diverse coalition of fans that would make any politician jealous, to share their atmospheric and artistic brand of “stomp and holler” music.
While I sadly arrived too late to catch opener Arny Margaret, Of Monsters and Men filled the evening with enough quality music to satisfy any fan. With their new album All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade out, the group played a number of songs from that release, opening with the elegant single “Television Love”, followed by “Dream Team” (which you can watch in the video at the top of the page).
The crowd was receptive to the new music, but it was clearly an audience of old school fans, as the crowd erupted when the band went into their first album cut “King and Lionheart” which had the audience singing and swaying. The anthemic “Alligator” came next. The track from the band’s third album is an anthemic rocker that is one of my favorite tunes by the band, even as it leaves some of their folk trappings behind. But as their live performance would show, Of Monsters and Men have long since evolved past simply being another group that capitalized on the first 2010’s folk revival.
The atmosphere and arrangements in songs like “Human” and “Sugar in a Bowl” brought acts like Radiohead to mind, with that band’s use of soundscapes to experimental noise to fill out their songs. While OMAM are never as atonal or avant garde as that UK band, they still carry the influence of their chilly homeland that has permeated the music of artists from Björk to Sigur Rós. It’s what has helped them stand out in the crowded field of bands like Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers.
The show continued with hits like the singalong “Crystal Eyes” and joyous storybook song “Dirty Paws” along with new tracks like “The Actor” and “Mouse Parade”. New one “Ordinary Creature” was especially lovely as the band leaned the microphone into the audience to get the audience to join them in the lovelorn chorus. The band finished off their main set with the lofty “Styrofoam Cathedrals” and their epic hit “Little Talks”, which had audience members in circles dancing together.
Surprisingly, for their encore, the band left out their other huge single “Mountain Sound”, and instead chose to play the intimate “Love Love Love” as a solo acoustic number, followed by “Fruit Bat”. I couldn’t sense any disappointment from he crowd though, as they took in every last note.
Catch the band on tour and listen to their new album here.
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