Though I will admit I haven’t yet spent much time with Of Monsters And Men‘s latest album Fever Dream, I do find that the newer stuff doesn’t grab me the way that their debut My Head Is An Animal did – it doesn’t quite have the same warm, folksy vibes as that album. On the other hand, the newer material is not without its own charms and is probably better suited to the larger venues they’re playing these days anyways. And if you’re looking for grabbers, set opener “Alligator” does have a certain immediacy to it.
It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years since the band released their debut album but a quick glance at the calendar confirms that it absolutely has been that long. In the intervening years, they’ve released two more albums and have also moved up in the world, going from playing their very first Toronto show at the El Mocambo all the way to headlining the Budweiser Stage all these years later. Admittedly, this did come as a bit of a surprise to me. I guess the moral of the story here is that unless it’s a mega huge popstar or some legacy act that’s been around for decades, I don’t have the best sense of exactly how popular things are with the masses. So be it.
Even so, Of Monsters And Men put on a rousing performance full of crowd favourites like “Little Talks” and “King And Lionheart” alongside a healthy serving of the newer material and a few off of sophomore album Beneath The Skin and proved that they’re more than capable of holding their own in the big rooms.