May we never go go mental, may we always stay stay, gentle. Of Montreal’s flamboyant front man, Kevin Barnes, undoubtedly relishes in the irony of these lyrics as he performs what he dubs the “sissy dance” and shares the stage with four people in black, body-hugging one-pieces, and alien masks. For the next song, the actors peel themselves out of their extra-terrestrial leotards and put on tuxes and huge animal heads. They bumble around on stage, often roaring at or colliding with the band members.
You’ve got to hand it to a band capable of producing such a bizarre spectacle. Even if you don’t like the music, you can’t help but watch and wonder what they’re going to do next. Trying to discern a narrative thread is impossible – the folks sharing the stage with the band change their costumes ten times during the show, wearing everything from hot-pink, one-legged flared onesies to jungle furs. During one song, the guitarist simulates humping one of the animals with the head of his guitar.
An Of Montreal show is organized chaos. It’s like Carnival on stage. The audience goes along for the ride, largely because they maintain at least a vague belief that there’s some method to the madness.
The show, especially the costume changes, reflects a band that constantly destroys borders and boundaries – even the ones they themselves have established. Whether during a two-hour show or a 10-year career, Of Montreal’s sound never stays the same. They reinvent their sound and aesthetic, and aren’t shy about borrowing inspiration from other bands and performers. The songs on their most recent album, Skeletal Lamping, provide funky pop hooks while pushing the band into new terrain. Barnes has fully embodied the alter ego he began developing for their previous album, Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer? He wears face paint, a puffy purple shirt that would make Seinfeld proud, and shiny red platform shoes. The overall effect offers a “Ziggy Stardust for the new millennium” vibe, while his voice and the band’s backing suggests a Scissor Sisters sound mixed with hints of psychedelia.
Despite the band’s varying visual and aural aesthetic, their set list revolves around songs from the Sunlandic Twins era that have emerged as classics. These songs provide an armature for the mad dash costume and chord changes. Just when Of Montreal seems to be veering off the map (or stage), just when the audience starts wondering who or what they’re listening to, the band plows into a song like Oslo in the Summertime, which grounds both them and the audience. They push the envelope, but just when the audience gets antsy or uncomfortable, they rein it back in and reestablish their vintage quirky and contagious pop.
Of Montreal might spin heads with their musical ADD, but any band that refuses to rest on their accumulated success and instead chooses to reinvent itself both on stage and in the studio deserves props, which the audience was more than happy to give them. Their encore of The Party’s Crashing Us, brought down the house and left the audience with the sense that while the band might continue morphing, they’ll always be a sight to behold.
