Let me start off by saying that an hour after this show I was still breathing heavy, and now, the morning after, I am sore all over from the almost two hours of dancing that went on at this show. That dancing is credited to, of course, Of Montreal and not so much the other bands. But let’s take this one act at a time, shall we?

Mixel Pixel: These guys are a four piece electronic dance act from Brooklyn, comprised of a bassist, a keyboardist, a guitarist and a man on drum machines and loops. They were clad in all white sweatsuits with minimal color so the trippy projections covering the stage would paint the performers nicely as well. Unfortunately, I’d say the projections were the most interesting part of the show. The music was rather boring, normally just a flat drum line with a verse guitar line and a chorus guitar line, nothing especially catchy or out of the norm. To be fair, I have not heard their albums, and perhaps they are just not my thing, but frankly I was very bored during their set and most of those around me seemed to be as well.

Grand Buffet: A rap duo from Pittsburg who finds great humor in curse words, sarcasm, and attempting to offend lots of people simultaneously. Okay, okay, if I’m honest here 90 percent of the crowd seemed to find this hilarious and were having a total blast, but somehow the jokes didn’t translate as funny to me and I found their music boring and their raps either cliche or uninteresting. I feel a bit overly negative here, so I will say that one of their tracks was produced by fellow Pittsburger Girl Talk and the music on that one was pretty cool. But overall, their set didn’t quite do it for me and I think I understand why they supposedly struggle to get distribution.

Of Montreal: Remember when these guys played the NorVa back in August and turned downtown Norfolk into a giant dance party? Well since then they’ve released an incredible album (Hissing Fauna…), and they’ve had their music appear in multiple television advertisements. As a result, they have an even stronger repertoir to choose from and the funds to put whatever the hell they dream up on stage. Their costumes were flashier than ever before, with giant feathered wings, cabaret suits, a humongous lobster claw, and a sparkly dress with a ladder under it so frontman Kevin Barnes could sing a song as a ten-foot Chiquita Banana girl. All of this was on top of an array of non-costume visual stimulants, such as the detailed psychadelic animations, the 12 foot three-headed Cerberus made of styrofoam, the killer lights show, and a stagemate in a silver spandex body-suit with a Henrik Ibsen mustache whose only job was to dance and be ridiculous. Essentially, I felt like I was at a Talking Heads or Flaming Lips show. The set was fantastic with practically no complaints on my part (except for no “The Past is a Grotesque Animal”!) and the music was perfectly mixed and marvelously executed. I will say that the NYC crowd was much more hesitant to let loose and dance than the crowd in Norfolk, and it took almost 3/4 of the show for the concert to really turn into giant boogie fest that it’s meant to be. Nonetheless, I still broke it down like there was no tomorrow, and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, they covered “Moonage Daydream,” quite possibly my all time favorite David Bowie track. And honestly, this was probably the best cover I’ve ever seen performed, it seems that these guys were born to play this song. I’ve included a link to a youtube video of this cover at the bottom of the post.

The moral of the story is, the openers were pretty terrible, but Of Montreal still puts on one of the best, most energetic, most solid, and most fun live shows you will ever see. They aren’t playing the seven cities this time around, but hopefully they’ll be through again soon. Pick up their new album Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? now, it’s one of the best cd’s this year thus far.

of Montreal Set-List:
Suffer for Fasion
Sink the Seine
Cato as a Pun
Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
Labyrinthian Pomp
She’s a Rejector
Vegan in Furs
Du Og Meg
Climb the Ladder
Rapture Rapes the Muses
Gronlandic Edit
I Was A Landscape In Your Dream
A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger
I Was Never Young
(Fiery Furnaces Cover)
The Party’s Crashing Us Now 

Encore:
Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider
Faberge Falls for Shuggie
Moonage Daydream (David Bowie cover)
Forecast Fascist Future

Internal links
Hissing Fauna… Review
of Montreal Live at the NorVa Review  

External links
of Montreal’s Website  
Polyvinyl Records
“Moonage Daydream” cover on youtube  

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 1:00 pm and is filed under SHOWS/EVENTS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.