Future Islands played two sold-out nights at T5 with Operators and Wing Dam (pics from Night 2)

January 12, 2015

Future Islands / Operators @ T5, 1/9/2015

While the rest of his group are efficient, heads-down performers, Herring puts on a rare show. Chest-thumping, growling, jumping, slinking, kicking, and at times crawling around the stage, he moves through and between songs at breakneck speed, stopping only long enough to fit in a “Let’s keep the show going!” or “Let’s shut the f-k up and keep it going!” The crowd responds in turn: less than halfway through the set the room was as sweaty and thumping as any dance floor in the city, and stayed that way through the two-song encore.

“Seasons (Waiting On You),” “Balance,” and “Tin Man” got the biggest responses, as well as the biggest performances from Herring–and they were followed by several sincere thank-yous to the crowd. It’s a special thing to see a band so exceptionally excited to exhaust themselves on stage. – [EW]

Future Islands played two sold-out shows at NYC’s 3000-capacity Terminal 5 last week (January 8 & 9), a slightly bigger venue than their last NYC show. A bigger stage means more room for frontman Sam Herring to dance and he certainly made full use of T5’s real estate on Friday night.

Opening both nights were Operators, the new band from Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs), who had played a headlining show at Baby’s All Right earlier in the week. Perfect Pussy’s Meredith Graves made an appearance with them at Thursday’s show, but no such luck Friday night. Also on both bills were Future Islands’ Baltimore neighbors Wing Dam. More pictures from Friday’s show below…

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