On Friday night, Of Monsters and Men took to the stage at Toronto’s History for the second time in less than two months, poetically ending off their current tour in the same place where they began it.
But that’s not how they planned it.
Initially, the Icelandic indie-folk band were meant to play just one Toronto show back in October, shortly after the release of their fourth studio album, All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade, but fate had other plans. That show ended up taking a very unexpected turn when most of the band took to the stage to announce that guitarist and co-lead vocalist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir had lost her voice and would not be able to perform. They followed up that announcement with a promise that they’d be back soon and a brief four song set as a sort of consolation prize for the fans.
With her voice back at full power, Hilmarsdóttir greeted the crowd as they took to the stage. “We’re Of Monsters and Men. We’re so very, very, very happy to be here now. Sorry we’re late to the party,” she said, though she promised it was going to be a good party. And based on the crowd’s reaction, I’d say that the audience agreed.
At that truncated October show, singer/guitarist Ragnar Þórhallsson jokingly said that the show could kind of work without him, but that it really doesn’t work without Nanna. Truth be told, it did kind of work on that occasion, at least for the four songs they ended up playing, though a full set may have been a bit harder to pull off. And as Hilmarsdóttir herself pointed out, we did get a very special show that no one had ever seen before, as that night was the first ever time they had played a show without her. So we’ve got that going for us.
Still, it was great to see the band at full force, and they delivered an entertaining set that saw them playing most of the new album along with a selection of tunes from throughout their career. Highlights off the new album included “Tuna in a Can”, “Television Love” and “Styrofoam Cathedral” while classics like “King and Lionheart” and “Little Talks” got the biggest reactions from the crowd.
While Of Monsters and Men may have begun this tour with what Hilmarsdóttir referred to as “a very traumatic start,” Friday night’s show was a triumphant return for the band and a fitting finale to their North American tour.
