The glam-y glitter bomb from Athens, Georgia known as of Montreal sashayed into The Plaza Theater in Orlando last night. Opener, Kishi Bashi, caught me by surprise with a powerful folk-y orchestral chamber pop with an Asian twist. I heard the final song as I made my way through the lobby and thought the The Plaza was just piping in some killer interlude music. Kishi was followed by a funky Prince-like dude named Roman Gian Arthur. He was interesting, but used far too much backing track accompaniment to really engage me. Roman did do a pretty cool cover of Radiohead’s “High n’ Dry.”
Of Montreal took control over the stage just after 11 PM. Early parts of the performance traded some of the theatrical antics for movie screens and psychedelic projection gimps. These guys, clad in spandex gimp suits, used sheets, umbrellas, and their bodies as projection screens adding to the trippy pop carnival that is of Montreal. Claire Boucher aka Grimes (who is incredibly cute in person btw) was in attendance at the show and going apeshit for Kevin Barnes and company. She was with a clan of French Canadian counterparts who were easy to identify because of the seamless blend of pushy, obnoxious, and smelly only French Canadians can attain. I kid. I kid because I love. I wonder if the know of Montreal isn’t really of Montreal?
They played nearly all of their new album, Paralytic Stalks, and ended the first set with a monstrous “The Past is a Grotesque Animal.” Montreal ended the show with another epic 10 minute-plus Skeletal Lamping medley that slid into “Gronlandic Edit.” As a casual fan I’m still caught up in Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? but Barnes has an impressive catalog of music to draw from and is not afraid to sissy smack you upside the head with it.