Don’t get me wrong: of Montreal’s concert Friday night at Roseland Ballroom wasn’t bad. In fact, for anyone interested in crazy stunts, it was incredibly entertaining. Frontman Kevin Barnes may not have performed naked this time around, but he did change his outfits several times (from a red-jacket-with-sombrero ensemble, to a tiny pair of golden briefs, to a red robe-ish thing), pantomime being hanged (complete with gallows) by the dancers/performers onstage, and, yes, come out on an actual white horse at one point—possibly risking the lives of the entire audience in the process. (I mean, what if the horse had trampled us all?!)
All the while, there were crudely drawn cartoons and animated geometric patterns playing on three huge screens over the stage—ranging from advancing and retreating tigers to brightly colored Aztec temples—and, as I mentioned, a bunch of extra performers on stage who helped Barnes in some of his more outlandish moments (like when he dressed up as a centaur, including the entire back half of a horse) and even pulled some of their own stunts (like dressing in camoflauge and ski-masks while dancing with guns, or shooting tiny feathers into the audience).
Amid all the craziness going on, it was almost easy to forget that the of Montreal concert was supposed to be just that: a concert. And that the music, at least generally, is supposed to be the most important part of a concert, or at least the reason why most people show up. In an of Montreal concert, though—or at least this one—the music comes second.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. On Friday, of Montreal played most of the songs from their new album, Skeletal Lamping, and very few of their older songs. For me, that meant that the most interesting part of the night by far was the ridiculous performing—I am not a fan of their newest album. Thankfully, they did play a few oldies-and-goodies, such as “Eros’ Entropic Tundra,” “Gronlandic Edit,” “October Is Eternal,” and “Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse.” Other than those, though, most of the older songs of Montreal played were their biggest hits, but maybe not deservedly so: “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games,” “Disconnect the Dots,” “She’s a Rejector.”
Because of this pattern, it really did seem like Barnes and the gang were phoning it in a little—playing older songs because they felt they needed to do so, playing their new album to promote it, and focusing primarily on the over-the-top spectacle of it all in order to distract fans from the lackluster music.
And then they’d do something like play “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as the first half of their encore, and you’d have to wonder if they really are crazy—and not just faking it.
(All photos were taken by me. Hence the crappy flash.)
