Puke & Pits: an of Montreal recap

By Maddie Ticknor /// Arts Editor

As I walked toward the Wonder Ballroom on March 26 for the of Montreal show, I accidentally stepped in a pile of unusually colorful puke, setting a precedent for the rest of the night, in the best way possible.

Filing into the venue, the crowd appeared to be the average motley crew of teenaged hipsters with winged eyeliner and bushy beards. With colorful outfits and jazzy dance moves, these kids were ready for the strangest antics of Montreal had to offer.

The lights dimmed and the crowd got quiet as a mysterious man in a red unitard and face mask, looking strangely Zorro-esque, came on stage to offer some pre-show words of wisdom:

“I want to thank you all for coming out. I want you to know its not by accident that we’re here. I struck up an agreement with God and he’s decided to let me collect very specific weirdos. If you guys prove that this is the best night of your lives by the end of the night, insects are gonna come in here and chew off your mortal forms!”  The band entered the stage and the show began.

The psychedelic indie rock band played songs from their new album, “Aureate Gloom,” which was released March 3. The first song of the show, “Bassem Sabry,” got the crowd jumping around and dancing together as the band carried on their bizarre stage antics and production techniques.

At one point, giant poodles got up on stage in American flag unitards and boxed against each other as some sort of reincarnation of Abe Lincoln dancing around in a Spiderman costume. Moments later, the music paused as lead-singer Kevin Barnes discussed “the romantic notion of feminism.” Before the crowd knew what was happening, two women with cowgirl hats and guitars were on stage singing country love songs. The crowd seemed confused but got into it as they two-stepped to the beat.

As the kaleidoscopic array of psychedelic lights wound down at the end of the night, the mystical Zorro character returned to the stage to inform the crowd that we would not lose our human forms tonight because, “We are needed here, so we can turn this planet into something real special. When the world-wide revolution happens, it’s gonna be up to the youth. We can win this inevitable robot war with passion.”

Overall, the night proved to be as weird as I had hoped. And don’t worry, I got the puke off my shoe with minimal effort.