Future Islands at Radio City Music Hall [photos/review]

On the eve of the summer solstice (June 20th, 2024), Future Islands returned to New York City to the heart of Midtown to play the world-famous Radio City Music Hall. The band is currently out on the road in support of their absolutely stunning latest album, People Who Aren’t There Anymore (out now via 4AD), which is bound to end up on many year end lists (including ours). Most of their career-spanning set was dominated by tracks off the latest album, the set was still full of amazing moments from start to finish.

The set kicked off with the album’s powerhouse opening track “King of Sweden”, which was an awesome way to start their tour-de-force near 2-hour performance. No matter if it was a new song, old song, or deep cut… everything sounded ferocious with an energy I’ve never seen the band play with before. Frontman Samuel T. Herring acknowledged the crowd between a lot of the songs and was incredibly grateful to be playing Radio City and kept thanking the crowd for being there which you could tell meant a lot to the band. At one point, he even told the crowd “you should see the view from up here” and to be fair, he isn’t wrong – the art-deco masterpiece of a venue is truly stunning from any angle regardless of where you are.

All the classic moments of a Future Islands show were on display – intricate drumming by Michel Lowery, elevated synth work by Gerrit Welmers (pun intended as he was like 10ft in the air), intricate baselines from William Cashion and the excellent foot/dance work from Herring. In between Herring’s trademark growl on certain songs in the set, he did his usual leg kicks but may have extended them a little bit higher and longer because… when you’re at Radio City, you kind of have to pay homage to the Rockettes, right?

Lastly, I want to give major kudos to the overall art direction of this current tour. It’s the first time I’ve seen them with a setup where each member was on a platform and while it wasn’t overly elaborate, everything was carefully designed around each song that helped elevate their already stellar live show. What was difficult to capture in photos was the scope of it all in that, they used projectors and projections in the best way possible.

Instead of drenching the band in projections, the projections were used to create shapes and textures onto their setup to create unique scenes that felt totally different for every song. Each song felt like it took on a new look and feel and all the creative choices for the entire set were top-notch. Pair that with the amazing sound, this was truly a night to remember for both fans of the band and the band itself.

This is most certainly a tour you do not want to miss so if you do find yourself with an opportunity to see them on this run, please do so (you won’t be sorry). See all of the upcoming Future Islands dates here.

Find a full gallery + setlist from Future Islands below.

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