I don’t know how I do it, but I seem to be developing a knack for picking shows on the worst days, weather-wise. Last week, it was braving the coldest night in over a decade to go and see The Charlatans and Ride, and tonight, it’s one of those gross early-Spring kinda days where rain is falling on snow to carpet the city in an inch of slush. Well, except for anywhere within 3 feet of an inevitably-blocked drain; in that case, it’s just a huge puddle. Gross. And yet, here I am, driving through that, then walking like a penguin over the slick death-trap sidewalks to another show. There had better be a good reason for this!
Well, there is. Of Montreal created 2 of my favourite records ever, in the form of 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? and 2008’s Skeletal Lamping, and when asked about my favourite song ever, their 12-minute opus The Past Is A Grotesque Animal, usually enters the conversation, if not ends it. Their last planned Montreal show at Metropolis back around 2010 or 2011 was mysteriously cancelled without any real explanation, so I’ve been waiting a long time for the make-up show. When it was announced at La Tulipe as part of the all-new Taverne Tour Festival, I was pretty excited to see them in a relatively smaller venue. When the aforementioned cold snap a couple of weeks ago claimed La Tulipe and the show was moved to the even-cozier Theatre Fairmount, I was over the moon. So terrible weather or not, I was not missing this!
After a psychedelic darkwave opening set by locals, Crasher draws all manner of crazy interpretive dance moves around the room to warm the place up, Of Montreal finally take to a Montreal stage after so many years away. Frontman Kevin Barnes is sporting a blue wig, swimming trunks, and a hoodie with a giant black labrador on it (the dog, not the region out east). Good to see he hasn’t changed a bit! The deep bass funk grooves of It’s Different For Girls kick off the dance party, the perfect tonic for such a soggy day, and by the time Paranoiac Intervals / Body Dysmorphia drops, the place is really bouncing. Not songs I am overly familiar with beforehand; expect some unknowns when there are 18 albums to choose material from! Nevertheless, I am immersed. Kevin relentlessly bounces around the stage, mostly unencumbered by any instruments, grabbing a guitar on just a few occasions to beef up the sound, such as on Polyaneurism and the punk-rock blast that is 20th Century Schizofriendic Revengeoid Man (honestly, does anyone have better song titles than these guys?!).
Of course, the moments that draw from Hissing Fauna and Skeletal Lamping are the ones that really get me in the feels… and it sounds like it’s not just me. As the bass wanders from the stellar For Our Elegant Caste into Bunny Ain’t No Kind Of Rider, the cheers seem to get that little bit louder, and by the time the instruments back away for the chorus, the walls shake as the crowd roars: “I need a lover with SOUL POWER!”
The bass stroll into Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games) follows a similar path and is met with an equally resonant singalong from start to finish, with that line “let’s pretend we’re in Antarctica” feeling extra apropos after current climactic events! We immediately get a second helping from that 2005 Sunlandic Twins record as the outro merges into the carnival that is The Party’s Crashing Us, and the pogo continues across the floor. The driving bass then blends seamlessly into the funk of Gronlandic Edit and then A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger, closing out the main set with a double-whammy from my beloved Hissing Fauna record. It’s so slick, so tight, it’s just perfect; I am absolutely euphoric by the time they leave the stage.
I’m still euphoric by the time they return for the encore. So when they resume the set by continuing the revisit of the Hissing Fauna record with Suffer for Fashion, I essentially lose my mind altogether, joining the pogo-ing masses. Of course, doing all of this while wearing a North Face winter coat quickly elevates my core temperature to about a billion degrees Celsius in 15 seconds flat, but no matter. I keep bouncing, and so by the time the show closes out for good with the anthemic Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse, I am spent. Meh, who cares; plenty of snow, rain, and slush to cool me down outside afterwards. It’s an unforgettable 75 minutes, and it leads me to an epiphany: so far, in 2023, gig enjoyment is inversely proportional to the quality of the weather.
I guess I’ll see you out in the next storm then!
Setlist
- It’s Different for Girls
- Marijuana’s a Working Woman
- Paranoiac Intervals / Body Dysmorphia
- Nightsift
- Polyaneurism
- For Our Elegant Caste
- Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider
- Blab Sabbath Lathe of Maiden
- Soft Music / Juno Portraits of the Jovian Sky
- True Beauty ForeveR
- 20th Century Schizofriendic Revengeoid Man
- Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)
- The Party’s Crashing Us
- Gronlandic Edit
- A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger
Encore
- Suffer for Fashion
- Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
Review & photos – Simon Williams
