Of Montreal and The Ruby Suns@ HiFi Bar, Melbourne (5/3/09)

Tue 10th Mar, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Its hard to know what to expect from Of Montreal. The band’s rapid ascent to indie-pop stardom has come on the back of two albums largely preoccupied with the transformation of Kevin Barnes, its (skinny, white) lead singer/guitarist, into a black cross-dresser named Georgie Fruit. Add to this Of Montreal’s notoriously cultish fans and a stage show that can verge on sexually explicit, and you begin to paint a picture of the hype surrounding the band’s first tour of Australia. The question is whether there is room for much musicality beneath the eccentricities.

Of Montreal attracted an enthusiastic but surprisingly non-glittery crowd to the Hi-Fi Bar last Thursday, where they were supported by The Ruby Suns, a Kiwi group playing a very Californian version of world-pop. Their African, Pacific and South American influenced beats were a perfect lead-in to the nutty Georgians.

The main act was up next, though, and Of Montreal arrived to deliver the spectacle that everyone was expecting. Much of their set was from 2007- œs Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, and like that album, their performance merged songs and snippets of sound into a wave of music that never seemed to stop for breath.

At times, the effect was overwhelming. Delicate songs like the opener We Were Born The Mutants With Leafing tended to get lost within an onslaught of eye-tingling video backgrounds and pantomime performances. The sensory overload is perhaps best captured by the kaleidoscopic cabaret show, which involved (among other things) a gigantic golden buddha, a mock satanic resurrection and an orgiastic fruit-eating sequence featuring a gentleman in a pink leotard and blond wig.

That said, Of Montreal are clearly very skilled musicians. Their music flits between genres, at times referencing straight 60s pop – Requiem for O.M.M.2, from 2005’s The Sunlandic Twins – at others funkier disco. Some songs, like Beware our Nubile Miscreants, mirror Kevin Barnes’ stage schizophrenia, bouncing between Prince, 60s girl groups and glitch pop. Simpler, beat driven songs fared better amid the clamour. She’s A Rejector, and Gronlandic Edit, were firm favourites, the latter prompting the otherwise normal-looking crowd to dance like maniacs.

Overall, the band played a well thought out set of carefully crafted pop music. However, at times the songs took second stage to the spectacle. The theatrics are obviously part of the reason Of Montreal has been so successful, but it will be a big pity if they take away from the band’s musical achievements.

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