Of Montreal
By Kimberly Rosenbauer
Monday. Mar 26, 12:44 PM
live at Metro (Chicago, IL) March 15th, 2007.

If you know Of Montreal at all, you know that they’re weird. Not on purpose: it’s who they are deep down inside their souls. And if you recognize this, then you also know that their live shows extend their oddness that much more past the band’s recordings. You’re in for something extraordinary, and you can never, ever guess what that is.

The first time I saw them a few years back, they staged a 10-minute (no joke, it was that long) slow-mo stage fight in the middle of the song. But these days they’re much more exposed so now it's a matter of how strange you can be on a bigger budget.

The stage set-up is wild. Behind the band is a movie theater-sized screen with mostly psychedelic images, a few cartoon superheroes, and some live footage of the band. There are also two other screens outlined in (appropriately) silver glitter that are showing other random images: the word “money” backward, a girl with a hat, to name a few.

The band are also decked out. The lead guitarist is wearing an enormous white jacket with huge feather epaulettes, the keyboardist is wearing a gold leotard, and our man of the hour – vocalist Kevin Barnes – has his face painted gold and a Japanese jacket.

Of Montreal enter with a run of their more popular songs, to which the crowd thanks by screaming continuously: “Heimdalsgate…”, “So Begins Our Alabee,” and “Suffer For Fashion.” During one of the next songs a crew member comes out and gives Barnes an enormous lobster claw to wear for a verse or two. Yep. This what I’m talking about.

I soon concluded that the crowd was actually screaming for Barnes himself. He knelt down at one point to play his guitar and gaggles of girls in front are actually clawing at him! At another point in the show, the keyboardist brought out a Swedish flag to wave around. She then gave it to the crowd who proceeded to fight over it to such an extent that the keyboardist and a crew member had to wrestle it back away from them. I had no idea the band, or their scrawny singer, was such a phenomenon. Although it was a sold-out show, I felt like I was the only one who had ever heard of them.

And then Barnes is gone… for a few minutes. He’s changing. The guy loves to change outfits. Now he’s in blue boots, short-shorts, and fishnets. Costumes or not, the band are tight and rocking hard. Every note, every complicated rhythm change, every dynamic swell is perfect. Maybe too perfect? There’s certainly something to say about a band that offer “something else” about their music or about themselves at live shows. In Of Montreal’s case, was this the show part of it? It was certainly a performance I would never forget.

This held true especially during the crowd’s favorite from the newest album, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?: “Gronlandic Edit.” Off-stage for another costume change, Barnes came back on and climbed up a 10-foot ladder draped in gold lame, stuck his head through a circle at the top, donned a black feathered hat, and proceeded to sing the song with might… one story above his fanatical audience (see picture for 1,000 words’ worth).

The band finished their set (as bras were flown on-stage) with other hits: “I Was Never Young” and “The Party’s Crashing Us.” Across the venue – upstairs, downstairs, bad views, good views – people are dancing like there’s no one around. Like it really didn’t matter how weird the band was or what Barnes’ 17th costume change would be. I mean that stuff is fun and all, but when you get down to it, what everyone was there for was the incredible music.
www.ofmontreal.net

Kimberly Rosenbauer

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