If you have ever seen an Of Montreal’s clip you might be aware of the lunatic vibe they have. It’s something sort of mystical-nonsense-kitsch that in the end works out very well. And is there a better way to bring to reality all this madness if not in a live performance? No!
All the characters that are part of the band’s universe were there on the Shepherd’s Bush Empire stage last Tuesday.

I confess that I couldn’t identify very well what some of them were, but the rest went from a guy in jeans, sneakers, blazer and a tiger’s head, people with gas masks, pigs, a shark (or any similar fish) and more pigs. Aside from BP (guitar) who totally rocked on his look, matching a feathered vest with a 70’s peace and love outfit.

All very charismatic and professional. Meaning that they left for the casting to do all the crazy performances and concentrated on playing, amazing everybody on the guitars and synthesizers. Kevin Barnes totally looked like he was enjoying what he was doing and really wanted to be there. Every down and then he pulled some little dances that went something like I’m on the dance floor, I can do whatever I want, fuck everybody else”. Ace!

The quality of the sound however was a big failure, bad mics audio, I personally couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. And the set list could also have been rethought. I missed some tracks from Hissing Fauna (aka Cato as a Pun, my favorite, and Suffer For Fashion). Skeletal Lamping was better explored, of course, and from older stuff my highlights were Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Rapture Rapes the Muses.

An Elurdian Instance managed to become even more magical and overwhelming on its live version and The Past Is A Grotesque Animal were eleven minutes of a true musical acid trip. It was exactly when the guy by my side simply fell sleep, literally. Or he was going through a very strong thing with himself and maybe I didn’t get it.
Another thing that they could have invested more in the scenario, since they have all this surreal theatrical casting, it would be a perfect fit.

Otherwise, it was a great show! Basically everything that Of Montreal is in theory, put into practice in real life – up until where it allows us, unfortunately!

Pictures by Miguel Schertel

Written by Barbara Mattivy on Tuesday July 21st, 2009 11:32 am

Tags:

Electro, Fashion, Georgia, Kitsch, Live, London, Pop, Review, Shepherd's Bush Empire, Theatrics

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