Live Review: Of Monsters And Men, Sydney

by Poppy Reid

Tuesday January 30
The Metro Theatre, Sydney, NSW

Of Monsters And Men were always going to chart highly on Triple J’s Hottest 100 list. The Icelandic indie-folk band sold out their promo tour of Australia last July, saw their breakout track Little Talks spend two weeks at #7 on the ARIA chart, and sold out last night’s Metro Theatre gig long before the song shone brightly as Triple J’s #2 on the annual list.

But as the six-piece (and their one touring member) spent an hour-and-a-half transporting the crowd inside the fables of their songs, most were curiously quiet for the tracks that weren’t Little Talks or more recent single Mountain Sound.

It could be put down to the fact Australians are spoilt when it comes to live music; catching an overseas act on a school night has become part of our week and committing full albums to memory, or even buying full albums for that matter, hasn’t been the norm for years.

:: VIEW LIVE SHOTS FROM THE NIGHT HERE

That said, co-singers/guitarists Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar ‘Raggi’ Þórhallsson have lead a notable transformation over just two years; what started as an acoustic solo act's project to tell stories is now a famed addition to most mainstream playlists and forever sandwiched between Macklemore (#1) and Alt-J (#3).

During tracks like Love Love Love and King and Lionheart - the song which tells of a world where Hilmarsdóttir and her Canada-residing brother can be together - barefoot touring member Ragnhildur Gunnarsdóttir exhibited her chops on trumpet, accordion and keyboard. While the band’s stripped back version of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Skeletons could have been taken straight from their debut album; the harmony between Þórhallsson and Hilmarsdóttir is an indelible force. But the most beautiful expression from this collective of gypsies was in final track Six Weeks, OMAM loosened their collars and lost themselves in the percussion and swaying of their zealots in a spirit that seemed suppressed beforehand.

From winning an annual battle of the bands competition in Iceland to selling out venues more than 15,000 kilometres from home, Of Monsters And Men have inadvertently opened hearts to the art of storytelling and proven that sometimes a meteoric rise to global consciousness is best proffered to the faintest, most unassuming voice on the chart.