Future Islands 11Oct2014 @ Mochvara

"Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity, but with it you can accomplish miracles."

I went to see Future Islands perform at Mochvara last night.

It was a bittersweet experience, full-blooded, thigh-twitching affair. Magnificent.

I have watched them before, on their now cult performance at Kset in 2010. I remember writing to Zach afterwards, saying that people wept in the audience when Sam announced Tin Man. And I remember Mr. Herring's surprise and happiness with the reception by that audience. I remember how I was then just lukewarm fan, only getting to know their art, and how my being their fan grew from that tepid interest into rapturous devotion - and in the heart of that devotion, one thing stands true right from the beginning; you cannot improve on perfection.

That most perfect thing, one that caught my attention then and is also flawlessly present now is Mr. Herring's dramatic delivery of lyrics, just as one would present lines in a play. What makes this presentation especially engaging is the notion that it is propelled by enthusiasm and candor, rather then building a theatrical on-stage persona. Lines he delivers are his own, flowing from his life and his experiences, and them being enveloped in music only makes them more potent.

So, ...if this was such a great experience, why bitter-sweetness?

Well, I feel that venue was too small for number of tickets sold as it was truly, not only unpleasant, but disgustingly overcrowded. Mochvara has been my favorite venue for quite some time now, partly because of excellent, relaxed staff and also because of extraordinary jump in a quality of sound during live performances - both of which was clearly present yesterday - but the place was so packed it was sickening.

Other thing adding to bitter-sweetness is this unfortunate internet fame Mr. Herring has been in the center of recently. This is a thing that both upsets and angers me, because it once again shows the world populated by clueless buffoons. Short description of happening is that Future Islands were brought to center of "more mainstream" attention by being on now several shows that ended up featuring not really their music but even more so presenting Mr. Herring's performance as "unparallelled" by theatrics in the music business, which in turn ended up widening their audience. What angers me most is that I feel his dramatic performance is misunderstood since it is commented as histrionics, not giving him credit for what he really deserves; unparalleled enthusiasm and candor. Why this is important? Because it brought portion of the audience that wasn't there for the music and I feel that they were detrimental to the complete experience.  Example of such crap is this silly bitch snapping a selfie right on the stage during an encore.

Even in this less than perfect conditions Future Islands performance was impeccable and it was both honor and pleasure being there to witness it.

I hope I will be seeing them again.

Black Walnut

It has been long and tiring week.

On Wednesday morning, as I drove to work, I was haunted by the notion that there is no person that I have trusted at some point who had not betrayed my trust, often in some blatantly public and extremely unpleasant way.

And then - I had a car crash.

It was raining and I was driving downhill and there was one black Clio coming out of the park-drive and I tried to stop and Fabia behind me tried to stop also - but failed. As the car behind me crashed into my Twingo I remember watching through rear view mirror and seeing big cloud of hair and I felt my right hand clutching steering wheel and my wrist exploding in a searing pain.

I got out of the car and told the very beautiful girl driver; "It hurt like a motherfucker!"

We moved our cars a bit so traffic could continue and then filled out traffic-accident forms, exchanged phone numbers and left for work.

Sadly, my car was really inconveniently damaged and I think this will be one very expensive repair. Also this had made ten more problems - all of the wrath-kindling kind - but beautiful girl driver proved so far to be wonderful and mild-tempered creature, with magical smile and persuasively apologetic of this whole incident - so much so that she restored my faith in myself and trust.

I am not guilty for people betraying my trust. People do sometimes betray trust of others and that could be preempted with not trusting them. But if I'm not trusting anyone - I'm not communicating with anyone. They do not reach my "soft center" and I do not reach their.

That alone makes us dislodged from humanity.

So I'll take my chances trusting people, still.

*        *        *

The photo above I took on my business trip on Friday  at Varazdin General Hospital. My colleague was driving and we got there and I was tired because I didn't sleep much and angry because of some other crap my ex-spouse is serving me with and tired of all this and in Varazdin sun was shining and it smelled of autumn and coffee and pastries and we bought some coffee and pastries and ate them on third story balcony surrounded with these fake walnuts. When I got home I searched web a bit and they seem like Juglans Nigra to me.

And now it is Saturday and I made myself wonderful hot chilies toast sandwich lunch and I enjoyed it with a cold beer and Future Islands music and all is well.

World is properly aligned again and my heart is at ease.

I will trust again.

We Could Live on Future Islands

Yesterday evening I went to see Future Islands at Kset. I first heard of them through my online acquaintance Zach Kelly's Pitchfork review of their "In Evening Air";. Though at first I found their sound awkward and dispersed I have grown to like them very much so when I heard they are going to perform in Zagreb I was very excited and had no doubt in my mind that I should attend. And it really was a nice show; a bit sloppily adjusted sound-wise but I am starting to feel I am spoiled rotten by few superbly set up gigs at Kset (last one being unbelievably perfect Russian Circles). The crowd was in good, dancing mood and performers pleased with the reception. Very nice show indeed.