Recap Islands at the Memorial Union Terrace

Islands frontman Nick Thorburn probably gets a lot of questions about when his old band, The Unicorns, is getting back together. But the crowd assembled at the Memorial Union Terrace on Saturday night seemed more interested in when his current band was going to stop playing songs off last year's Vapours and start playing some off 2006's Return To The Sea. Even though the band’s splendid set was heavy on the new stuff—which was made tighter by Islands trimming down to a svelte four-piece—the biggest reactions from the crowd came during ecstatic takes of “Rough Gem,” “Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby,” and “Where There’s A Will There’s A Whalebone.” In fact, The A.V. Club spent most of our time sandwiched between a few dudes who vociferously shredded their vocal cords asking for “Swans,” Return To The Sea’s sprawling opening track.

Thorburn took the shouts for old stuff in stride, rocketing through the meat of Vapours while climbing the Terrace’s flimsy tent and chatting with the crowd from behind his giant sunglasses about staying in school, the bros being in the back, and how windy the night had become (super). And at least the people shouting from afar for stuff from the first album didn’t repeat the faux pas a woman made front and center: She shouted for “Creeper,” a song from Arm’s Way that the band had ably performed earlier—which was pointed out by the keyboardist.

As for the dudes yelling for “Swans,” they got their wish, as Islands worked up a massive hell-fury for the set closer that made the original sound like it was recorded at half volume. During the song’s 10-plus crushing minutes, Thorburn may have finally gotten the rest of the terrace’s attention, which seemed unlikely to happen, since the crowd ignored the Wolf Parade-indebted Steel Phantoms and paid only mild attention to the harp-heavy new wave of Active Child earlier. Instead of lingering on his triumph though, Thorburn dashed off the stage and ran up into the Union theater, no encore needed, the crowd watching his every move.