Suffer For Passion: of Montreal’s Magical Musical Tour

By Andrew William Smith, Editor

Photos by Patty Arriagada

January 7, 2009

Is it the circus of sound or a club show or what? Amid a cloud of preening pomp, the Athens, Georgia entourage known as of Montreal push the boundaries of rock performance. Fronted by the fabulously dressed and fantastically dramatic Kevin Barnes, of Montreal expand aesthetic definitions and defy current indie rock staples like beards and denim. Unlike the always cloudy clout of the new Seattle sound, this southern quintet lets the sun shine into even the most warped and introspective reflections.

Dropping lyrics that sound like they were lifted from a grad school essay and perfecting gender-blending bi-curious beauty, Kevin Barnes takes the Bowiesque androgyny of the last century to the next level.

Although his interviews dance around the topic with a balance of vague ambiguity and visionary assertions, Barnes ends up sounding both utopian and evasive, like what one of my friends calls “heteroflexible.” Regardless, it takes a rare individual to get a crowd of mostly straight folks to wave their arms and sing along about “going both ways,” as happened early in the set with “For Our Elegant Caste” from the recent album Skeletal Lamping. Surely, this singer’s hypersexed shtick contributes to the group being a fascinating crowd-pleaser.

As the band pops synthy grooves into our eager ears, Barnes takes us on a futuristic tour indebted to funk, rock, and pop history. Like bookends, the opening blast of the Stones’ “Let’s Spend the Night Together” and the roof-raising finale of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” combine to create the strong aural sense that this band borrows from diverse roots to grow its garden to otherworldly delights.

More than a band, this collective phenomenon inspires fans to paint faces, wear fairy wings, and generally frolic on the crowded floor while a Technicolor happening transpires before them. To create the candyland kaleidoscope of projected colors, Kevin Barnes brings the vision of his own version of Peter Max, his brother David Barnes who does all the band’s album art.

Groups like of Montreal often get tagged as being pretentious, but it’s eternal rock wisdom that our entire genre of music requires a certain dose of healthy pretension. Steeped in the bleeepy, the band’s records border on the cerebral sonics better suited for headphones. But Barnes’s brain is so clearly wired to his booty (tonight covered in tight purple pants) that ultimately he just wants the gang to have fun.

With fans and the band dressed for Saturday night and willing to interact with an of Montreal associate dressed in a tiger mask and tuxedo vest, fun certainly flowed on an unseasonably warm January night in Nashville, for the first big show of the year.

of Montreal released Skeletal Lamping on October 21, 2008. The band will begin its European tour later this month. For more information, please visit http://www.myspace.com/ofmontreal