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Life & Arts

Of Montreal puts on a bizarre celebration

Indie rock group energizes crowd with synthesizers, 
creative ensemble playing 

by RUTHIE RODRIGUEZ
The Daily Cougar

A band's stage presence is essential to putting on a good show. 

By the end of the night, Of Montreal proved its trippy overtones, silly lyrics and showmanship were enough to make concertgoers stick to their sweat-drenched, tight pants as they left the venue. 

Numbers, 300 Westheimer Road, was packed to the brim as concertgoers awaited the anticipated Athens, Ga., indie rock quintet's Hissing Fauna Tour. 

Of Montreal offered a mixture of catchy melodies and quirky guitar hooks with synthesizer-driven dance beats to boot. 

Bass guitarist Bryan Poole and guitarist Matt Dawson delivered intertwining bass and guitar work while multi-instrumentalists Dottie Alexander and Jamey Huggins added the layer of dance beats.

Frontman Kevin Barnes, touched up with shimmering eye shadow and rouge, exhibited much enthusiasm as he bounced around stage. 

Barnes' audacious stage persona was a point of interest as he changed up his wardrobe throughout the set. 

He came out from backstage for a third time barely covered in a one-piece bathing top and thigh-high fish nets.

Barnes' androgynous vocals extended throughout the venue as he sang, "There's a girl that made me bitter / I just want to pay some other girl to walk up to her and hit her."

At around the forth song into the set, Huggins switched over from playing keys and guitar to launch a fierce solo attack on a five-piece drum set. 

Of Montreal transitioned between different sounds throughout the night.

The group played songs from its 2005 and 2007 releases, The Sundlandic Twins and Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, respectively. 

One of the more notable pieces was a song that started with Barnes playing a warbling guitar solo. 

Guitarist Matt Dawson offered a syncopated, high-pitched rhythm with an echoing effect while bass guitarist Poole filled in a spiraling bass line. 

Alexander and Huggins added their own choppy riffs to give the instrumental piece an edgy sound. 

Huggins interrupted the dominant guitar work with a simple trumpet solo that slowed down the pace of the song.

As an intro to another song, Huggins and Alexander offset each other's keyboard work and made transitions throughout the piece until it grew gradually darker and richer with an overwhelmingly droning outro. 

The crowd was dancing to each of the synth-heavy songs, with some doing acid trip-style dances to the psychedelic bass solos.

Tokyo-based septet Elekibass had no trouble winning over the crowd with its tremendously upbeat, sing-along opening act.

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