Of Montreal at the Riviera
By Spencer Kornhaber
http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2008/11/13078/of-montreal-at-the-riviera/These pictures aint the half of it. Photos by the Spencer Kornhaber / North by Northwestern.
A lot of crazy ->-bleeped-<- happened at Of Montreal's show at the Riviera on Monday, but the craziest thing may have been that it all wasn't, you know, insane. Sure, some may look at 2008 as the year when front man Kevin Barnes finally lost it, releasing divisive schizo-pop opus Skeletal Lampings and then going on tour that's one-third rock show and two-thirds nightmare ballet. In Chicago — as he has been doing elsewhere on this tour — he brought a performance troupe, bizarre costumes, stripped down to a bikini-bottom, rubbed himself down with red ink, put on a bath robe, walked himself up a mock-gallows, was hanged, stripped down again, emerged from a coffin-thingy filled with shaving cream and brought his own daughter Alabee on stage to watch the madness.
And that's the idea behind Barnes' recent musical output. He acknowledges he's a "Woman Studies Victim" with one song title, and a good portion of Skeletal Lamping and Hissing Fauna is narrated from the point of view of the fictional Georgie Fruit — a middle-aged black transsexual who was born a man, had an operation to become a woman, and then switched back to being a man. Fruit stands in for Barnes' own anxiety about his masculinity, as he constantly veers back and forth between sweetness and lustfulness. This all leaves him with guilt, depression and an ear for fabulous pop hooks.
