Of Montreal Attracts Football Players, Glam Fans in D.C.
Live shows are a much better fit for Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes’ ambitions. On record, it can seem like he’s determined to re-create the high points of glam rock using just a drum machine, some zithers, and a selection of powered yard-care tools. And while Of Montreal’s stage set is unmistakably homemade, it’s a platform for Pink Floyd-sized (or at least GWAR-sized) aspirations. At the 9:30 Club, Barnes, dressed like a cross-dressing mariachi, emerged on a sedan chair, carried by four dancers dressed in gold lame Buddha outfits. It was one of the easier-to-explain spectacles in a night that saw him hanged from a gallows, painted red, and emerging from a flower-encrusted coffin covered in shaving cream. Also, there was music, but Of Montreal’s ironic disco couldn’t carry a show on its own. The six-piece band is charged not with hammering out musical epiphanies but with keeping the sexed-up dance party going. Barnes, incongrously for a fellow who looked as if he might kill himself at any moment, provided the sex, belting out falsetto tributes to Antarctica and blowjobs and lolling in a cardinal’s outfit during “Women’s Studies Victims” while a dancer in a naughty nun outfit tended to his tootsies, fitting him with some strappy ladies’ sandals. He wore those (and little else save for a gold high-waisted, Capt. Kirk-style bikini bottom) for the rest of the show, leading a crowd that included Redskins tight end Chris Cooley in “Plastis Wafers”‘ chorus of “You are such a fucking star/You know you are.” He was, for good reason, talking about himself.
Set List:
“Id Engager”
“So Begins Our Alabee”
“Triphallus, To Punctuate!”
“She’s a Rejecter”
“For Our Elegant Caste”
“Touched Something’s Hollow”
“An Eluardian Instance”
“Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse”
“Gallery Piece”
“Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)”
“Women’s Studies Victims”
“St. Exquisite’s Confessions”
“Eros’ Entropic Tundra”
“Nonpareil of Favor”
“October is Eternal”
“Wicked […]
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