Delightfully theatrical performance of Montreal

Quick translation of my Dutch review for my fanzine (www.ikrszine.blogspot.com). So sorry for any spelling or grammar errors, really did this in a hurry without rereading or an edit. But I believe this band is touring England so thought I would just put this one up. Anyway, the review:

A celebrated band, an impeccable live reputation, consecutive successful releases, one of the most eye-catching singers: it is hardly a description you would expect fitting a band playing in the small Tivoli de Helling venue. Slow ticket sales, one assumes at least, prompted Tivoli to move the concert to the little brother of the original eyed club. People with ticket probably pinched themselves a few times. of Montreal? In such a small venue? For 12.50? It's a bit surrealistic really, but actually that's a vibe that suits this band most excellently. The band released Skeletal Lamping last year, and the year before they had basically conquered the world (or so one would've thought) with the critically acclaimed Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?. Both albums were celebrated because of their catchy, funky sound, which forms a strange contradiction with the doubt and alienation that frontman Kevin Barnes sings about.

Sure, you get to hear that music at the gig, but the thing that really steals the show is, well, the show. A Master of Ceremonies enters the stage, wearing a tiger's head, as you do. The band follows, everyone in strange and colorful outfits. But despite that, it is still Kevin Barnes who steals the show. Pin-striped trousers, a red, glittery scarf posing as a belt, a white blouse with some sort of pirate collar, and a very short, green vest. The little red shoes, the painted nails on one hand (pink, naturally), the make-up, and the lip-gloss/lipstick complete the persona of Barnes tonight.

As if that wasn't enough to look at, a theater group enters the small stage as well. All sorts of animals and strange characters visually support the funk of Barnes and his band. While dancing you're not quite sure if you have to look at the pig biting the crotch of some sort of ninja, or at Kevin Barnes, who by now has gotten rid of all his clothing to show off his gold hot pants. While on the other end of the stage a whole play is being performed, Barnes, In a delightfully theatrical pose, sings about what is preventing him from being normal, and why he wouldn't want to be that anyway. He prays "chemicals, don't make me sick again,", he begs his "mood" to "shift back to good again." He also screams from "the depths of this phallocentric tyranny". The only thing that is a bit of a downer is that he indeed has to scream to make himself audible, with the vocals being quite soft in comparison to the instruments. Someone should probably have turned that up a bit.

Despite those soft vocals, and some other minor errors, there really was no stopping the artistic explosion that is of Montreal. Kevin Barnes seems to be enjoying himself as well. Even when, at the end of the show, he is carried on stage in a coffin, he can't quite keep the smile off his face. The regular set ends with the song 'A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger', a song with a happy synth line that makes for a danceable closer. The set could have been more danceable if they had included rollerdisco anthem 'Gallery Pieces' or the epic, eleven minute long, 'The Past Is A Grotesque Animal'. These songs do not make it onto the setlist. Despite that you can hardly call it boring, as there is always something going on to either look at or listen to.

Another song that is absent is 'Suffer For Fashion', which is stranger as it was locked in as the first song of the encore. Barnes, however, is in the mood for something else. The band launches into 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' by Nirvana, this of course after an intermezzo by the Master of Ceremonies and someone wearing Loch Ness's her head combined with a Superman costume. After Nirvana, the band plays another five covers, including two of the acclaimed The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars album, courtesy to Bowie. Who is, according to Barnes himself, a huge influence on the band. Bowie once sang "Oh you pretty things, you know you're driving your mama's and papa's insane." It seems as if the band made that their motto.

The audience gets a funky, bizarre bit of theater, and all the "pretty things" in the audience can't help but gawk at the delightful cabaret of Barnes and his men. While dancing it is hard to imagine that, as soon as you leave the venue, you have to do without the beauty, with some kind of misplaced seriousness, and in any case without Barnes' make-up and outfits. Objectively speaking it's a cabaret freak show, but for about an hour and a half it is the world with beauty, admiration, happiness, and good music. And Bowie. Especially with Bowie.