Janelle Monáe, Of Montreal

When I got there, I noticed that the guy world-renowned for scalping tickets had branched out. Despite the recession, he had hired someone else to assist him with the selling of tickets at outrageous prices. This new hire gave off a less creepy, more incompetent vibe. Like think your old dad as you try to explain to him how to delete spam from his spam folder.

            I’ve seen Janelle perform before, but this was easily the best concert she’s put on. Apparently her new album got infinitely better press than the new Of Montreal. Since I haven’t actually listened to either of their new albums, I’ll have to take the critic’s word on this, but I do plan on doing my own homework once I lay my hands on both.

            Her voice has always been the main draw with everything else as an afterthought. Initially I was skeptical about how good the performance would be, since the early concert video warned me that I would “Dance or Die” but it wasn’t an idle threat. There was some serious dancing going on, along with wholesale slaughter of the non-dancers. After the first song, I got hooked. Grooves came so easy for her band, plus she’s really worked on some of the performance. Now instead of just surfing the crowd to be cool, there were small tokens of weirdness on stage. Dancing nuns and other such pieces helped make it a bit more interesting. Obviously some of this was inspired by Kevin Barnes’ freak feasts, but it did feel original in her hands. I really need to check out her new album (or probably not that new, I just always fall behind on releases).

            Of Montreal started with much fanfare. This had to have been one of their best concerts I’ve seen since I saw them start the “Skeletal Lamping” tour in 2008. Most of the set list noticeably lacked much material from that album, instead using mostly the new stuff (of which “Like a Tourist” seems like a great track) and Hissing Fauna stuff, along with a few oldies. While doing some of the songs, they sort of zoned out and explored the hell out of the funkiness of the tracks; they did that for a few. Seeing them improvise live had to be another surprise, usually they stick with the most conservative renditions of their songs, allowing for little “loose play”.

            Stage performance art has to be sort of Kevin’s calling card. He’s known for stripping down to almost nothing and humping actors with Tiger masks. No Tiger masks were in attendance, but I did get to see a pig-woman go down on him, so that’s got to count. A big bonus was the closeness to the stage; usually I get pushed to the taking out binoculars area. It seems like they revamped a lot of the costumes, and allowed for more breaking of character. Multiple times the dancer/actor things got their costumes ripped off, to show the actual humans beneath. Plus, it looked like they moved on from some of the previous performance pieces, so this tour looks a bit more promising than the last few.

            The encore could not have been better. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” got covered with the most delicate treatment possible. As the covers progressed, the Of Montreal crew got joined by Janelle and her band. Looking at the stage, it seemed like the end of Saturday Night Live was near, that’s how crowded it was. Plus, they all danced in some sort of near-orgy like energy. Seeing them all there, I hoped either janitorial staff would be asked up on stage, or, more selfishly, that the entire audience goes up there and grope in a fashion befitting Kevin Barnes’ likely perversion.

            What had to have been the best part of the concert was my ability to tune out the audience completely. Usually I can’t keep my head straight with the utter uselessness of the audience as they take off their clothes in heat, or how they make out with their significant other who is unreasonably older/younger than they are, or people tweaking out on drugs. I’m not saying this didn’t happen, but I feel like it was kept to a smaller section than usual.

            Overall, I enjoyed the whole thing and I really want to check out both albums. Way more energy on stage than I could possibly process. 

Skeletal Lamping, False Priest, Of Montreal, Add Yeast

Of Montreal came out with a new album False Priest this week. That means they begin the arduous touring schedule they are so well known for. Usually they try to do at least 40 stops per tour, often more. Kevin Barnes has “tour fluffers” in order to keep him in tip-top shape once he hits the stage. White ponies aren’t just going to ride themselves.

Last album got a lot of flak for being “insanely sexual”. I remember for the opening concert at the Roseland, he rode on stage almost naked riding a white horse (he got an upgrade from his usual pony). Most reviews talked about how obsessively self-indulgent the whole affair was, usually citing how many different ideas were shoved into each song. Max Tundra complained about that same criticism once he began releasing his music. It is a lazy and usually unwarranted criticism. Whatever critic uses it tends to focus exclusively on hooks and catchiness. Most of those tend to be unfamiliar with more challenging fare, and are ill-suited for such reviews. Also, I’ve noticed that a general rule of thumb tends to be voting against rather than for these hyper-active landscapes.

False Priest appears to be a different beast. Rock actually rears its ugly head through all the millions of synthesizers and various drum machines. Plus, it sounds as if Kevin has moved away from the pure joyous freak-outs of Skeletal Lamping. Of course, I need to spend more time with this album and let it grow on me. My computer frustrations could not have come at a worse time. Generally I like to be somewhat familiar with an album before just committing myself to a concert (with Panda Bear being a notable exception).

Nonetheless, I think Kevin will come out in heavy form for this. Maybe he moved away from the astronomically bizarre reaches on Skeletal Lamping since he needed to be a more normal role model for his child. I still find it weird he has a kid, and I figure that kid’s rebellion against his parents’ high weirdness will be something like becoming an actuary or something. Yes, he’ll rebel by being really boring, kind of like Ned Flanders reacted against his parents’ Beatnik lifestyle.

My only worry has to do with the venue. Terminal 5 is a dreadful, dreadful concert hall. Bringing together all the worst of large venues with the worst of small venues, it feels like the suburbs, in that ugly gray zone. Hopefully the concert itself will be good enough to overcome this almost crippling problem. Hell, LCD Soundsystem did it, but then LCD Soundsystem is amazing.

See you there everyone!