of Montreal - From Top to Bottom (left to right): Kaoru Ishibashi (top), Bryan Poole, Kevin Barnes, Nicolas Dobbratz, Clayton Rychlik, Davey Pierce, Dottie Alexander (Photo: Patrick Heagney)
Live Review: of Montreal
February 17, 2012, Georgia Theatre, Athens, GA
by Jordan Stepp
I was really not expecting this. On a cold night at the Georgia Theatre, the most natural thing to do is get drunk and dance. It keeps you warm, it makes you happy, and everyone has a good time. The End.
The Theatre was pretty full of of Montreal folk. Friends of the band hung around the new rooftop bar while the surprisingly good openers did their thing. Some hardcore fans took to handing out glow sticks that they whipped around in the air like so many neon snakes. But after the first three songs, I began to wonder if I was at the right show. Yes, the new of Montreal album is a lot darker than the ones before and yes, I fully expected to see the stage show toned down a bit. I did not, however, expect to leave the show feeling a bit depressed.
Of Montreal slogged through the new songs like an office worker slogs through Monday morning drinking decaff coffee. You could see the puzzled expressions on fans’ faces as Kevin Barnes and his backing band played one mid-tempo tune after another.
I keep wanting to chalk the lack of energy up to the fact that this was the first time many of the new songs have been played live. There’s something to that, of course, but after several songs, I just felt drained of any anticipation I had.
Even “Famine Affair,” a personal favorite of mine, was lackluster. Barnes’ vocals were muffled and he had re-arranged the song to sound more like the newer material. While it’s a good idea to have your setlist flow, it is not a good idea for a kooky party band to have it flow like a slow, meandering mudslide, crushing the expectations and energy of the crowd.
I felt really bad for this one group of fans near my perch. They had dressed to the nines in sequins, day-glo stripes across their faces, and way more spandex than necessary. These kids wanted to be furiously happy. They were ready for dancing but they apparently hadn’t been warned that we’d be doing a long, slow march towards the encore.
It is a dangerous thing for any band to drastically change its sound and stage show, especially if the band, like of Montreal, is known for a crazy party atmosphere. Too far in one direction will leave your fans wondering if you might need a few cases of Red Bull and some anti-depressants.
I will hand it to Barnes for trying to expand of Montreal’s horizons a bit. The new songs sounded like he was reaching towards Prince’s area of beautiful balladry. He was even wearing a little beret during the show. I just hope we will get the chance to see of Montreal later on in the tour, maybe see if anything has changed.
Barnes did seem happiest when unchained from his keyboard and allowed to dash madly about the stage, mic in one hand and tambourine in the other. The change in the air was immediate and welcome. Here was what most of us had come expecting to see.
By the time of the encores and subsequent happy mood swing, only those most faithful of Montreal fans had stuck around. There were plenty of them, to be sure, but the dragging nature of the actual set was just too much for some, leaving ample dancing room on the Georgia Theatre floor.
At least the encore was twenty minutes of classic awkward drunken flailing for the audience and smooth, Michael Jackson-esque moves for Barnes and co. The Skeletal Lamping medley was phenomenal, but not quite enough to erase the strange feeling I carried afterwards.
I really wanted to like the show because I usually really like of Montreal. The projected visuals were amazing and artful as usual. The musicians were incredibly precise and at least moved as a group. All the energy was just too little too late. If the Theatre allowed re-entry, I would’ve left after two songs and come back for the encore.
Editor’s Note: Jordan Stepp runs the site Athens Music Junkie and provided some outstanding, last-minute coverage for this show for DeadJournalist.com.
