Audio By Carbonatix
Photo: Jon Solomon
Of Montreal
Ogden Theatre
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Better than: Fellini’s Satyricon
It’s one thing to see photos and videos from Of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping tour. It’s another thing entirely to witness the spectacle firsthand. Even if they released a 3-D tour film complete with scratch-and-sniff Oderama cards, it still wouldn’t do it justice. The surreal factor just wouldn’t be as prominent as being part of this barrage of audio/visual mind fuckery.
Photo: Jon Solomon
The bizarreness manifested itself early in the set with dancing golden buddhas and the ninjas with sparkling gold masks. A couple songs later, a few guys and gals dressed as cowboys acted out a saloon scene while the band played “She’s a Rejecter.” Next thing you know, a guy wearing a white tux jacket and a tiger mask ambled on stage carrying a gal wearing a bikini and pig mask, and then a dude in a tiger head got a in a fight with one of the ninjas.
The theatrics didn’t play out on every song, which was good, as you needed time to digest whatever scene you’d just witnessed. The Of Montreal “players” came out every few songs dressed in different costumes, including bikinis, nude suits, animals, or wearing camouflage and ski masks and carrying machine guns. Every time the revolving platform with the screen turned around, new characters would appear. As the show went on each scene gradually got more bizarre.
Photo: Jon Solomon
About half way through the show, Kevin Barnes sang “St. Exquisite Confessions” in a cardinal’s robe, while a nun wearing fishnets strapped some girly shoes on the singer. Dude flung off the robe and sang the next few songs in his gold lame hot pants. On “And I’ve Seen A Bloody Shadow,” Barnes and a few of the performers staged a mock hanging.
Photo: Jon Solomon
During “Plastis Wafers,” Barnes was smeared with red body paint, while his cohorts dealt out paint to some of the people near the stage. After he came out as a minotaur-type character on “Beware Our Nubile Miscreants,” Barnes, covered in shaving cream, stepped out of a coffin and sang “A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger,” one of the most energetic cuts of the night. A few pig heads blasted a ton of feathers into the air during the song as the buddhas danced.
Photo: Jon Solomon
Everyone in the band kept the momentum flowing throughout the two-hour set by going from one song to the next without any breaks. They did stellar takes on nearly every song from Skeletal Lamping, five cuts from Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, and knocked out killer versions of Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the encore.
– Jon Solomon
Critic’s Notebook
Personal bias: Some of that imagery is going to stick in my head for a long time.
Random notes: The bassist played part of a song in crowd.
By the way: The last time Of Montreal played at the Ogden was exactly a year ago. Well, almost: November 17, 2008.
Set list
Introduction
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 Confessions
Eros’ Entropic Tundra
Nonpareil Of Favor
October is Eternal
Wicked Wisdom
Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider
Knight Rider
And I’ve Seen A Bloody Shadow
Plastis Wafers
Beware Our Nubile Miscreants
Mingusings
A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger
Encore:
Gronlandic Edit
Take Me Out
Smells Like Teen Spirit
