This year’s JHU Spring Fair swapped its usual practice field Saturday night headliner for almost 40 live bands and DJs, sprinkled throughout campus the entire weekend.
Or, at least that was the organizers’ intention.
Saturday’s atrocious weather meant that almost all festivities were put on hold.
The rain successfully drove away all but four food vendors, turning campus — and the always lively beer garden — into an absolute ghost town.
There was nary an audience nor a show time for the eager musicians. Sad stuff.
Some bands took to basements for impromptu late night concerts, but most were left to twiddle their thumbs, with little hope for a rescheduled set. While students were certainly sympathetic to their plight, most were just pleased to hear that the Future Islands show had been moved to Sunday afternoon, though confusion about show times certainly made a dent in the normally numerous attendees.
In Feb., The News-Letter interviewed senior Jonah Furman about his Baltimore Curators concert series, and he expressed interest in booking Future Islands for his next show.
Thankfully, Furman was named a recipient of the Arts Innovation grant, which allowed him to recruit the Baltimore trio and provide them with a proper stage on Levering Quad.
The turnout was impressive, especially for a 5 p.m. show time on a Sunday, although the audience mainly consisted of your average hipster Baltimoreans, while the Hopkins student body was no doubt dwelling in their preferred hot spot of MSE.
For those unfamiliar with Future Islands’s music, the band has sinister lyrics and tone, but an inevitably catchy melody.
Anchored by William Cashion’s bass and J. Garrett Welmer’s synthesizer, though arguably carried by Herring’s resounding “Jack Black doing his best Disney Villain impersonation” vocals, Future Islands is not nearly breezy enough for a new-wave label: post-wave is far more fitting.
Future Islands even opened ahead of schedule, as students shuffled over from the library to the beat of “Inch of Dust,” a favorite alongside “In the Fall.”
Vocalist Sam Herring was much more talkative than previous performances, but he also kept the crazy to a minimum, which was somewhat disappointing.
He took his fist to his own face just once, between verses of “Tin Man.” His knees, however, were as nimble as ever as he danced along with the front rows of concertgoers to an upbeat and well-balanced set.
A new tune Herring tentatively introduced as “The Town” and the encore closer “The Happiness of Being Twice” were practically zingers, bringing the moshing to a maximum.
Alas, it’s no one’s fault but mother nature’s, but it’s a pity
that Future Islands were not able to play their slated spot of 9 p.m. on Saturday night.
Though there were plenty of excited audience members towards the front of the stage, there were not nearly enough people grooving to the beats as there should have been.
A Future Islands concert is the right kind of concert, where you can shake out your inhibitions and lose yourself alongside Herring, but the cheery, sunny atmosphere — ironically — almost put a damper on things.
Herring’s relatively subdued behavior was a testament to this. He even left the stage momentarily to change into a new shirt.
The usual Herring is too consumed in his performance to even realize where he is, let alone having any sort of inkling that his sweat is seeping through his clothing.
Future Islands’s music was beguiling and powerful as usual on Saturday, but it’s safe to say that seeing them in a dark concert hall after hours is far preferable to seeing them in the wide-open daylight.
