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Gig Review

Of Montreal
London, Rough Trade East shop

Article written by Paul M - Oct 15, 2008

Of Montreal

On the day that their wonderful eighth album (and fourth on Polyvinyl), Skeletal Lamping, was released in the UK, the groovy Georgians Of Montreal played a pre-Koko warm-up at the Rough Trade East shop just off Brick Lane. The sound in the RTE is always exceptional even though it is after all supposed to be just a shop and with most of the racks pushed to one side it really felt like a normal gig, but more intimate.

Frontman Kevin Barnes claimed he was shaking with nerves, but the band looked relatively relaxed, dressed more conservatively than their full stage show (Barnes lacking any obvious make-up and wearing a casual jacket). Altough Barnes labelled their set an acoustic one, it was still one with a prominent pulse pumping through its dance rock veins. This new material divides long term fans. Clearly no longer an Elephant Six-style quirky pychedelic indie/folk band, they now take in influences from a variety of sources, including Bowie, Sly and the Family Stone and Queen but it's Prince that is probably most now at their (hard)core. The set was relatively brief, probably no more than 45 minutes and focused almost entirely on tracks from the new LP, some stripped back a tad but all featuring Barnes' amazing voice - he clearly doesn't need multiple takes to switch pitch levels. They finish with a track from Hissing Fauna and most, even some former disbelievers, will have gone home happy.

Links:
http://www.ofmontreal.net
http://www.myspace.com/ofmontreal