Monday, March 06, 2006
A few months ago I had the esteem privilege to see two interesting bands. I was overly influenced by a friend to listen to Athens, Georgia band Of Montreal's music. I mean when someone makes you copies of two of their CD's (The Sunlandic Twins and Satanic Panic in the Attic), brings them to you, then puts it into your CD player, and presses play… well you have no choice but to listen. I was won over in the weeks before the show. Plus, it was only $10 for the concert. I wouldn't have been out by much if I hated them live.
So tweedle dee and tweedle dum and the concert arrives and it is delayed for an hour while the lead singer from Of Montreal makes a mad dash from the airport to get there. Cat's Cradle is set up so that there were benches on each wall and it made it seem as if we were at some kind of Catholic school dance party. I did not ask that cute boy across the gym to dance, but next time I will. So we pretend dance, looked at peoples clothes (my favorite would have to be the girl in a white prom dress thing including white purse), and told people to push off cause we don't dance-we just look good against the wall while listening to the compilation of music blaring out of the speakers.
The whole time we're waiting in our fantasy world, they are setting up this PVC pipe construction on the stage with a cloth hanging on it with the letters MGMT (The opening band, The Management…they can't use the full name anymore for sad legal reasons ) and on this pipe construction there were suspended two guitars. I will say we had never heard of the band and so we cracked on their set-up, but little did we know how good they were going to be.
Their music... It's full of Electronic noises, guitars, and nice vocals, what more could you want? I found them eerily akin to Peaches, lovely dirty-mouthed Canadian rocker woman. Not for lyrical content but their similar musical stylings and dramatic stage presence. Especially the track, "Destrokk," it's like the 80's exploded in the room when they were recording, besides synthesizers make the world go around. What was most interesting was the fact that they pretended to play the instruments and drums to a pre-recorded track. It was theatre on stage ladies and gents and I loved it.
Not to mention the incredibly annoying Frat Boys earlier in the evening who kept yelling, "Yeah, yeah, yeah" for what I thought was for no reason. Well these once annoying FB's become the blood and dare I say, the life force, of the show. They kept it going with their amazing claps on beat (really good for FB's) and crazy enthusiastic jumping/dancing. They ended up being great audience members and winning a place in my musical heart. It turned out their once annoying chants were lyrics from my favorite song by MGMT, "Time to Pretend." I was so taken aback and kind of floored by MGMT that I immediately went and borrowed money and bought their EP, Time to Pretend, at the show. Wow so good, so good.
And let us not forget the greatness that is Of Montreal. They were great and well groomed and dressed and so funky and operatic. The most charming song of the evening had to be "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and other Games." With lyrics, "Let's pretend we don't exist/ let's pretend we're in Antarctica," Of Montreal had the crowd in a funnel of hopping joy. Plus the song "I Was Never Young" had enough horns for me to wish for a revival of jazz infused big band, if it ever existed in the first place. Besides the lead singer, Kevin Barnes, had on the best outfit of the night (almost rivaled by one singer in MGMT who wore a grey hoodie, no shirt, and sunglasses look) with a pair of tight white slacks and this wild print lady's top (maybe worn backwards also). "The Party 's Crashing Us," was a great chance that allowed Barnes to dip into British 60's vocals, along with the background back up made a for a great live sound.
Oh I shimmed and applauded and sat on a tiny space that wasn't meant for asses, especially mine. What I do for the music I love. Plus not getting home until 4am was fun and still rolling in on time to work at 8, was a pleasure also. Which means that there is no excuse not to see great live music.
[myspace] Of Montreal
[web] Of Montreal
[myspace] The Management[web] The Management
Signing off, L.C.W.
So tweedle dee and tweedle dum and the concert arrives and it is delayed for an hour while the lead singer from Of Montreal makes a mad dash from the airport to get there. Cat's Cradle is set up so that there were benches on each wall and it made it seem as if we were at some kind of Catholic school dance party. I did not ask that cute boy across the gym to dance, but next time I will. So we pretend dance, looked at peoples clothes (my favorite would have to be the girl in a white prom dress thing including white purse), and told people to push off cause we don't dance-we just look good against the wall while listening to the compilation of music blaring out of the speakers.
The whole time we're waiting in our fantasy world, they are setting up this PVC pipe construction on the stage with a cloth hanging on it with the letters MGMT (The opening band, The Management…they can't use the full name anymore for sad legal reasons ) and on this pipe construction there were suspended two guitars. I will say we had never heard of the band and so we cracked on their set-up, but little did we know how good they were going to be.
Their music... It's full of Electronic noises, guitars, and nice vocals, what more could you want? I found them eerily akin to Peaches, lovely dirty-mouthed Canadian rocker woman. Not for lyrical content but their similar musical stylings and dramatic stage presence. Especially the track, "Destrokk," it's like the 80's exploded in the room when they were recording, besides synthesizers make the world go around. What was most interesting was the fact that they pretended to play the instruments and drums to a pre-recorded track. It was theatre on stage ladies and gents and I loved it.
Not to mention the incredibly annoying Frat Boys earlier in the evening who kept yelling, "Yeah, yeah, yeah" for what I thought was for no reason. Well these once annoying FB's become the blood and dare I say, the life force, of the show. They kept it going with their amazing claps on beat (really good for FB's) and crazy enthusiastic jumping/dancing. They ended up being great audience members and winning a place in my musical heart. It turned out their once annoying chants were lyrics from my favorite song by MGMT, "Time to Pretend." I was so taken aback and kind of floored by MGMT that I immediately went and borrowed money and bought their EP, Time to Pretend, at the show. Wow so good, so good.
And let us not forget the greatness that is Of Montreal. They were great and well groomed and dressed and so funky and operatic. The most charming song of the evening had to be "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and other Games." With lyrics, "Let's pretend we don't exist/ let's pretend we're in Antarctica," Of Montreal had the crowd in a funnel of hopping joy. Plus the song "I Was Never Young" had enough horns for me to wish for a revival of jazz infused big band, if it ever existed in the first place. Besides the lead singer, Kevin Barnes, had on the best outfit of the night (almost rivaled by one singer in MGMT who wore a grey hoodie, no shirt, and sunglasses look) with a pair of tight white slacks and this wild print lady's top (maybe worn backwards also). "The Party 's Crashing Us," was a great chance that allowed Barnes to dip into British 60's vocals, along with the background back up made a for a great live sound.
Oh I shimmed and applauded and sat on a tiny space that wasn't meant for asses, especially mine. What I do for the music I love. Plus not getting home until 4am was fun and still rolling in on time to work at 8, was a pleasure also. Which means that there is no excuse not to see great live music.
[myspace] Of Montreal
[web] Of Montreal
[myspace] The Management[web] The Management
Signing off, L.C.W.
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