Of Monsters And Men in Toronto!

 

 Of Monsters and Men are a new, up and coming band all the way from Iceland! They are a talented group that consists of six members who play a variety of instruments. Though a seventh member has joined them for their tour to play trumpet, and she will probably stay on permanently now. Their sound is very good and is somewhat similar to that of Mumford Sons but with an even more of a European twist.

I originally was only planning to see the band at 102.1 The Edge's studio at Sugar Beach before their full show later that evening at the Phoenix Concert Theatre, which was sold out. I was too late in trying to purchase tickets once the concert's venue had been changed and became all-ages.
Of Monsters and Men performed three songs at The Edge including Dirty Paws, Little Talks (their hit single) and Sloom. It was an acoustic set of sorts, though all of the band performed on the small stage. They still included trumpet, accordion and base guitar along with the two lead singers playing acoustic guitar, and them all contributing vocals. The only difference from their 'non-acoustic' show being that their electric guitarist played percussion with a tambourine and the drummer just banged on a case and used maracas, instead of his actual drum set. It was really magical standing outside at the lakefront listening to the band's great harmonies.
They were all very charismatic and all the members had very cute Icelandic accents, even though they were very well versed in English. After their radio station performance Brynjar, the electric guitarist and Arnar, the drummer were out front of the studio chatting with fans and were able to put me +1 on the guestlist for the later sold out show!

Since I found out that I was actually attending the concert after the doors had opened, I was late arriving and got there a couple songs into the opening act's set. Even with my late arrival, I was still able to walk right in and acquire a spot right at the front of the audience, it was very close to the amps but considering since there is not much of a very deep or predominate bass in either act's music, it wasn't unbearable.

Lay Low, was the opening act and is also from Iceland. She was performing solo with only an acoustic guitar and a bass drum pedal thing of sorts (I couldn't really see from my spot in the audience). Her music was not anything exciting but it wasn't unbearable either, and I actually felt quite bad that most of the audience besides the very front of the crowd were blatantly talking throughout her set.
My favourite part of her performance was how for her last song, a few members from Of Monsters and Men came onstage to accompany her!

Of Monsters and Men's full set was absolutely amazing! I definitely do not regret staying out later than intended to go to this concert! Their performance was not very long but then one must consider that the band only has one album that is released, so naturally they will not have a ton of material to play. Even with the relatively short playlist that lasted around an hour, they still did a great job! Of Monsters and Men's music, to begin with, is very good and seeing them perform onstage right in front of you is even better. You can really tell that all seven of them really enjoy what they are doing and are so grateful for becoming so popular internationally so quickly.
I was lucky to have picked up their album My Head Is An Animal, the day after it was released when I was at Sonic Boom for Nada Surf and already knew all the songs they performed. The band put on a great show and I would definitely catch them again when they return to Toronto. Also the Phoenix Concert Theatre is a very nice venue, so I hope to see some more shows there in the future.

Of Monsters and Men at 102.1 The Edge performing Little Talks