Reviewed onSunday May 1 (photo by Ashley Mar)
At one point during their Sydney Opera House show, Of Monsters And Men featured 11 people up there onstage. Four guitarists. Three drummers. For a band renowned for the theatricality of its art, these guys sure weren’t cutting any corners. It also doesn’t hurt that each and every one of them looks like they’ve been enlisted from totally disparate acts. From co-lead Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir’s somehow stylised but fluid movements, to oddly undercut bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson, to the metal-god-in-waiting Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson, to my new musical crush Ragnhildur Gunnarsdóttir, they are like an Icelandic Avengers.
Having interviewed Hilmarsdóttir for this very publication, I walked into the gig knowing that the darkness and isolation of Scandinavian winters was a vital influence, and while none of the band’s catalogue is especially grim, there is certainly a splinter of darkness that is never far from reach. By opening with ‘Thousand Eyes’ and its refrain of “Undo this storm and wait”, Of Monsters And Men’s seemingly short set got off to a somewhat subdued and contemplative start. It has been the standard opener this entire tour, though there at Bennelong Point it was perhaps most appropriate. As the band noted throughout the show, the Opera House conjures a quiet crowd, and although there were many songs that had the room on its feet, the moment the last note faded, the crowd sank back to its seats, quietly expectant. A symptom of the venue rather than the band.
The set overall was a colourful beast, with a bustling mix of songs from their two albums plus the rare inclusion of ‘Silhouettes’ from the Hunger Games soundtrack. It was of course the breakout songs that soared, with ‘King And Lionheart’ an early favourite; later in the set saw ‘Dirty Paws’ and ‘Little Talks’, rounding out the commercial hits. For my money ‘Lakehouse’ should be added to that list, but what was most striking about their earlier songs was that none of the band seemed particularly fatigued to still be performing them. ‘Little Talks’ was delivered with as much gusto as you could hope for. That said, recent songs like ‘Crystal Eyes’ and ‘Wolves Without Teeth’ didn’t quite hit that same electric engagement; fine songs (notably the former) that somehow passed by unremarkably.
But their stagecraft was exceptional. From Hilmarsdóttir and Gunnarsdóttir’s tom battle, to Hilmarsson proving the most wonderfully bizarre drummer you can imagine, to Ragnar Þórhallsson’s mostly indecipherable good cheer, Of Monsters And Men bring a hell of a show.
