Future Islands @ Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 14 Jun

It's a good thing that IDLES are supporting Future Islands tonight, because there'd be plenty of bands feeling a little upstaged by the flailing guitars, crushing drums and pointed, acerbic lyrics. With a mix of tracks from last year's Brutalism and a spattering of new ones from Joy as an Act of Resistance (out in August), the band win a legion of new fans tonight, not to mention the sizeable contingent who are already converted. New song Samaritans is the pick of the bunch in its blunt deconstruction of masculinity. This is probably their last tour as an opening act, catch them headlining Glasgow's O2 ABC on 20 October.

The stage is sparsely decorated for Future Islands, just a lightly shimmering piece of fabric adorns the back wall of the Usher Hall, while the instruments form a line at the back of the stage. It becomes immediately apparent why so much space is needed, as Samuel T. Herring begins his fantastically limber twists and turns straight away, even though the first song is the relatively staid Give us the Wind. However, from there it's a tour de force of hits from the band's last four albums, with Ran, Cave and North Star providing the poppier moments, while older cuts like Walking Through That Door, Long Flight and Balance give the starker beats and the best of Herring's frog-in-the-throat deliveries.

Herring rarely stops can-canning, honing his prisyadka, pounding his chest or generally throwing himself around the stage, ultimately giving John Maus a run for his money for the title of 'Sweatiest Man in Synthpop.' The emotional weight of each song can be felt as he collapses to the ground, stares forlornly into the middle distance or signs his name in the air. Seasons (Waiting on You) is predictably momentous, but the subsequent Tin Man and Spirit are the real highlights of the show – and Herring's growl has never sounded so demonic.

The relatively long encore ends with two songs from their somewhat unknown (and underrated) first album Wave Like Home, which could have seemed like an anticlimax, but ultimately serves as the emotional apex of the evening. Little Dreamer is reasonably expected as a closer, but preceding song Beach Foam is a beautiful and powerful search for meaning in the wake of a friend's death, delivered with real, soul-stirring heft. Future Islands are a band at the top of their game, coming up on 1200(!) shows in just over 12 years – a finely tuned machine that still manages to evoke real feelings out of songs that would've lost their resonance after such repeated exposure in lesser hands.