Of Montreal at The Roxy - 10/12

A few weeks ago, I saw Of Montreal at The Roxy for the second time this year. Brooklyn based Jungle/Psychedelic Rock band MGMT was the only opening act of the night. I was very disappointed to discover that Philly hip-hop duo, Grand Buffet, did not show up. However, MGMT put on a fairly good performance, and Of Montreal wowed me once again with their crazy dance party theme.

MGMT was a pretty cool band. I liked their sound a lot. They had a lot of cool distortion with their guitars and synthesizers. Though a lot of the songs were very catchy, there was almost too much repetition in them. I'm sure if I delve more into their songs more, I will take a greater liking to them.

Of Montreal put on a very similar set to their March show at The Avalon. It was very dance party oriented. I wish they played songs older than their 2004 album, Satanic Panic in the Attic, which introduced their dancier sound, because they have a lot of variety to offer in their music, and the variety just wasn't there.

I had a fun time nevertheless. They played some good hits like "Oslo in the Summertime", "Rapture Rapes the Muses", and "Requiem for O.M.M.2". The sound was pretty close to the original recordings. There was some distortion in the overall sound, but overall, it was pretty good.

Of Montreal played two new songs: "Softcore" and "Mingusings". "Softcore" was a lot more memorable than the latter. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish the melody of a new song being played. This is where the distorted audio hurt their performance. But once again, like I said for MGMT, I'm sure once I hear the actual recordings of the new songs, I'll like them a lot better. "Softcore" was hella tight, though.

photo taken by matt0009

Let me now take this time to remark on the awesome set for the show: Platforms, platforms, and more platforms! And they were all lit up! There was a platform on each side of the stage. Dotty Alexander on the keyboards was on the left with the late b.p. helium (aka Bryan Poole, who I consider to be one of the coolest dudes in the indie rock world) on the right. There was a wide, 6-foot platform in the back where Jamey Huggins and Davey Pierce stood on for a great duration of the show.

Kevin Barnes kept the show very theatrical throughout the set. Everyone was dressed up in a costume, one way or another. Kevin was dressed in very skimpy clothing as usual, though his traditional David Bowie outfit was missing from this show. He would often act out things with his brother David, who was dressed up in a fencing suit. At one point, they both took out katana blades and began dueling each other in slow motion. And as soon as that finished, David took out a fishnet and decided to capture Kevin (see below).

photo taken by matt0009

Of Montreal put on a very good show overall. They could definitely start playing some of their older songs, but their newer ones are just as strong to make for a crazy concert/dance party.