No Future Islands, No Past: Scenes From “The Last Big One”

To the guy who wanted to see pictures: keep scrolling.

As promised, Thursday night’s joint billing at Eclectic—Cleveland noise-pop up-and-comers Cloud Nothings, North Carolina synthpop trio Future Islands—was “the last big one” of the year, for real-real. Between the visceral, fully charged assault of the former and synth-driven swirl of the latter, it was also one of the best.

First up, little-known Baltimore weirdos Ed Schrader’s Music Beat. I only caught the last fifteen minutes or so of this set, but if the band title sounds like something from a serial killer movie, the duo looks the part, too. There was a gratuitous amount of screaming, noise, and bashing around on tom-toms—I was quite pleased with what I caught.

Not as pleased as I was when Dylan Baldi and friends (“Cloud Nothings,” for all you hipsters) bashed through the entirety of 2012’s Attack on Memory with furious precision, nailing not only the caustic hooks, but the measured instrumental buildups (A-Batte: “I didn’t think they’d do the instrumental part on ‘Wasted Days’—but they did!”) and inimitable Steve Albini drum sound, too. Empirically: one of the best sets I’ve seen at Wes all year; I screamed my lungs out during “No Future/No Past,” and if you did, too, thanks. Here’s “No Sentiment.”

Eventually, drum machine-addled synth heroes Future Islands took to the stage and slowed things down a notch (crowd-surfing notwithstanding). Shout-out to frontman Samuel Herring‘s (is that Professor of Letters Joseph Fitzpatrick in disguise?) bizarre stage contortions, William Cashion’s steady bass presence, and that Pro Tools console in the back for keeping it real: hat tip all around. As Herring commented in between tracks (and I’m paraphrasing), “You guys have a special thing here. Keep it going.”

Here’s footage of a great song whose title I don’t know. Scroll on for a full photo gallery.

[nggallery id=135]