Live Review: Foreign Islands @ the Canal Club, March 21

Sometimes it’s good to be dragged out by your friends. Hence my Friday evening spent at Richmond’s Canal Club in the company of friends and Brooklyn’s Foreign Islands. Sadly, the show was not well-populated (I guess the rest of Richmond didn't get the memo), which apart from boggling my mind was rather unfortunate, because Foreign Islands put on a hell of a show.

For me, Foreign Islands is one of those bands I’ve heard of, but I hadn’t yet really given them a listen. Now, having seen them, I am trying to correct the error of my ways. The evening began rather inauspiciously; the show was meant to start around 9:30, but I stopped looking at the clock on my phone once it told me it was after 10. Finally, despite a low turnout, Foreign Islands swaggered up to the stage and began to play. What followed were seven tracks heavy on taut guitar riffs, bratty vocals, and delectable danceability. For those of you requiring a gimmick genre, hows about “punk wave”?

Foreign Islands caught me hook, line, and sinker. For being a pretty new band, and with, from what I can gather, some new-ish members, they’ve got impressive stage presence, and handled the lack of a large audience with aplomb and a nice dash of indifference. In my mind, they saved the best for last, with the excellent “We Know You Know It.” Any song that has cooing choruses and makes me want to cut a rug is a winner for sure.

Here’s the set list, courtesy of FI’s Eric;

*Hold Onto Nothing
*No Holiday
*That’s How This Goes Down
*Congratulations
*Low Light
*“Untitled”
*We Know You Know It

I heartily recommend that if you get the chance, you check Foreign Islands out. Gotta love a band that’s even better live than they are on recorded form. Catch ‘em now, before they blow up and play huge shows that sell out before you get your hands on tickets.

[Photo courtesy Foreign Islands' Myspace]