Sorta-local rock stars Future Islands were playing their 1000th show, and decided to do it via an all-day part in Carrboro. Between the pregnant wife and general laziness we only arrived in time for the headliner, but the line-up for the whole day was pretty great - Lonnie Walker, Valient Thorr, Ed Schrader's Music Beat, Dan Deacon and Danny Brown - the crowd definitely got their money's worth. A crowd that, by and large - at least where I was standing - was awful. I'm stoked for Future Islands that they are as big as they are, they certainly deserve it, but this level of popularity really has a way of stirring up the dregs of society. I mean, yeah, I bitch about how awful the crowds are all the time, because I generally hate everyone - but this was probably a new level...we're talking water park level patrons.
Anyways, back to the actual performance - the band sounded great and played a nice cross-section of their music, including a few rare early tracks. Lead singer Sam Herring was a little more subdued than usual, possibly because the of the outside heat, or maybe the whole gravity of it being their 1000th show was weighing on him. He also talked a ton between songs, lots of reminiscing about the band's early days which led to the wife stating "too much yapping"...she's not known for her patience. I think it was expected though, and the crowd didn't seem to care - after a day of music and heat and sweating and drinking, they were all lubed up pretty well and not feeling any pain.
Not the ideal scenario, but it was still fun...and maybe we can take the kid to their 2000th show, this time outside of the womb.