There’s a warm feeling in the sold out Enmore Theatre tonight. Not nostalgia exactly, though plenty of people here clearly came of age with Little Talks soundtracking road trips, heartbreaks and late-night Triple J countdowns. It feels more like reunion energy. Six years since Of Monsters and Men last toured Australia, and the crowd packs into the Enmore with anticipation.
Before Reykjavík’s most beloved export arrives, Gordi turns the room inward. She has always understood how to make emotional uncertainty sound strangely cinematic, and tonight her folktronica textures drift beautifully through the theatre. The audience barely moves, completely locked in. Beautiful lighting perfectly complements her performance.
Then Of Monsters and Men emerge to a roar that catches even them slightly off guard. The chemistry between Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson remains the gravitational centre of the band, their voices weaving around each other with the same ragged emotional pull that made My Head Is an Animal feel so immediate back in 2011. There’s something reassuring about hearing those harmonies again in a packed theatre, like reconnecting with people you haven’t seen in years but somehow recognise instantly. The configuration is strange with drummer, Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson sitting behind a perspex screen on the side of the stage.
What stands out most tonight though is how alive the band still seem inside these songs. There’s no sense of going through motions or mechanically replaying old triumphs. Instead, Of Monsters and Men perform with the energy of a group rediscovering each other in real time. The Mouse Parade Tour may mark a return after years away, but inside the Enmore tonight it feels like a continuation of something that for many never really disappeared.
The tour moves to Thirroul and Brisbane next, tickets HERE.
Images Deb Pelser
