Of Monsters and Men Bring The Mouse Parade to NYC

Of Monsters and Men kicked off The Mouse Parade Tour this past weekend at the beautiful Brooklyn Paramount for the first of two nights in New York City. Though not the intended start of the tour due to an unfortunately timed illness, the NYC crowd gave a warm welcome to the Icelanders as they took the stage in the States to headline for the first time in over six years. The band recently released their fourth studio album, All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade, a long-awaited follow up to their last album, FEVER DREAM, released back in 2019. Opening up the show was singer-songwriter Árný Margrét, who serenaded the audience in both English and Icelandic with her music, including closing with an unreleased song that showcased some harmonica skills.

A little bit after 9pm, it was finally time for Of Monsters and Men to take the stage, and you could feel the energy throughout the sold-out crowd. A few fans up at the front row went all-out with the mouse theme, with ears and face paint to pull the costumes together. The band opened strong with two songs off the new album: “Television Love” and “Dream Team” before saying hello to the audience and throwing it back to a fan-favorite older song with “King and Lionheart.” “Tuna in a Can” followed before the energy picked up again with the electric guitar-heavy “Alligator” and “Human.”

Of Monsters and Men are clearly proud of and excited about their new record – they played all but one song off of it over the course of their two-night stint in NYC. The middle of the set during night one had a five-song run of new material, including “The Block,” “Ordinary Creature,” and an ethereal performance of “Mouse Parade” that had nearly the whole band gathered at the center of the stage around one microphone to sing together. Older hits “Crystals” and “Visitor” made an appearance towards the end of the set, as well as of course the band’s claim to fame, “Little Talks.”

To close out the show, lead singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir introduced the last track on the new record, aptly titled “The End.” She described the song as “hopeful,” despite the lyrics seemingly describing the end of the world. They wrapped the show up with “Dirty Paws,” another clear audience favorite, before thanking the crowd and taking their final bows for the night.

The Mouse Parade Tour continues around the country through the end of November, including a performance at Mexico City’s Corona Capital festival. Rescheduled dates for the first two shows of the tour are also hopefully coming soon for fans who missed shows in Toronto and Boston.