Maryland – #DKLPHOTOS

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THE ACT: Future Islands | Facebook | Twitter

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THOUGHTS: To think that I almost missed out on seeing Future Islands perform at Coachella 2014. If it wasn’t for their lead singer, Sam Herring, convincing me to check them out, I would have missed out on music that I have perched high on my “best of the year” lists. When I found out they were performing at First City Festival, I urged all of my friends who were also attending to check them out. They, like me, were amazed by what they saw and heard. I think part of what makes Future Islands’ live performance so powerful to witness is the emotive stage presence of Mr. Herring. Every movement … every gesture … it all speaks to something, and it’s truly a revelation to witness. I suppose that why most of my shots of the band were of Sam. It really couldn’t be helped. I suppose that I should have bust out a wider angled lens to capture the entire band … hopefully, I’ll get a chance to do that in the future when they get back to Los Angeles for another gig.

Future Islands | First City Festival 2014

To Check Out Other Acts that I Caught At First City Festival, CLICK HERE.

September 10, 2014September 10, 2014 by dklee13 Categories: ConcertsTags: concert, Concert Photo, Concert Photographer, Concert Photography, concert photos, Concert Photos. Concert Photo, concert pic, concert pics, concert review, concert video, Concert videos, Electronic Pop, First City Fest, First City Fest 2014, First City Festival, First City Festival 2014, Future Islands, Gerrit Welmers, indie pop, Live Music, Maryland, Midi Matilda, New Wave, photo, photos, pic, pictures, power pop, Review, Samuel Herring, set list, setlist, Synthesizer, synthpop, video, William Cashion Leave a comment

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT BLOG ENTRIES OF OTHER BANDS I SAW AT COACHELLA!

If Woodkid was the surprise set of my Friday, Future Islands was the surprise set of my Saturday.

Between catching White Lies and Banks, I took a pit stop in the media tent of the festival. While there, I noticed Samuel Herring, lead singer of Future Islands, hanging out after an interview. For some reason, perhaps due to the little sleep I had the two nights before, I went up to Samuel and apologized for missing his band’s set on Friday. Problem was, they were performing later that evening. D’oh!!!! He politely corrected me, and encouraged me to go check them out. I was a bit too embarrassed to show him that I had actually circled their set in my festival booklet, and opted to assure him that I would while asking for a selfie, which he graciously obliged.

As an aside, in those few minutes chatting with Sam Herring, I got the impression that he was one of the most humble and easy going dudes on the planet. Total bonus points in the “cool” column.

When the band took the stage and started performing, I was blown away. I had seen videos of them perform live online, but there’s nothing like watching Sam Herring rock the stage in the flesh. He performs with such a passion, you can’t helped but get hypnotized by him. His facial expressions, body language, even hand gestures all served the purpose to help tell the stories he was singing.

To put it bluntly, I fucking loved it. On record store day, I actually looked for their LP to buy. It was apparently sold out, so I ended up buying their album on cassette instead. It was the second cassette I’ve purchased in the past 15 years (the other being a copy of The Pharcyde’s “Bizarre Ride To Tha Pharcyde”). I’ve played that cassette at least a half a dozen times since, and each time I think about their performance at Coachella.

If you enjoy bands like War On Drugs, Phantogram or St. Vincent, you should check out Future Islands. If you have the opportunity to see them live in a club venue, do it.