"When we get together/it's always hot magic"—indie rock-turned-confetti funk band of Montreal delivered on that promise from their song "Wicked Wisdom" over two sweaty nights at Webster Hall this weekend. Considering the fact of Montreal has brought a horse onto the stage during previous NYC performances, they had a lot to live up to. But with balloons, confetti, puppets, big-breasted boxers, psychedelic lights, mutton chops and white-suited stage divers, the pumped up young crowd was ecstatic. Even if you had no idea what was going on, it was fun as hell. And whenever the show reared too far toward high school drama club, the band reminded you they write timeless pop songs like "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse."
Or more specifically, lead singer/sexually ambiguous fawn Kevin Barnes writes fantastic songs. Barnes continued his live transformation from twee bedroom songwriter into David Bowie-circa-Young Americans. It was particularly apparent on tracks such as "Like A Tourist" and "You Do Mutilate," when he was freed of instruments to dance around the stage, flipping his mutated long hair. The band played about half of their somewhat strained new album Paralytic Stalks, which the crowd didn't seem to mind—by the time it got to the epic motorik "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal," the trance-inducing penultimate moment of the main set, the entire venue really felt like it was shaking.
It's easy for some to reject of Montreal as slight, or too obscure—between their purposefully-weird song titles, flamboyant image and unabashed wordiness, Barnes has a tendency to make his music personal to an alienating extent for some. But his songwriting is rich with knowledge of rock and R&B history—which means even his most confusing songs are grounded in effortless hooks upon hooks. And as his music has swayed toward programmed beats and synth flourishes, he's embraced his love of grooves. Both shows were filled with constant dancing, with particular high points including "She's A Rejector," "The Party's Crashing On Us," "Gronlandic Edit," and "Suffer For Fashion."
The first night edged out the second in terms of the encore: the crowd was treated to a 20-minute medley of should-have-been hits from their best album, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, and the criminally-underrated Skeletal Lamping. Above, check out a medley of clips from the first night; and below, check out the set lists from both nights.
