Of Montreal Brings Lots o' Fun

Thursday night's Of Montreal show at Bottom of the Hill was a great party, and we enjoyed seeing them at such an intimate venue. When we bought our tickets last month, both Gold Chains and Enon were billed to open the show, both of whom we hadn't heard from in a long time. Enon ended up canceling, and Gold Chains was solely in charge of getting the party started with his new cohort Miss Tiny.

Unfortunately, Gold Chains' set on Thursday night lacked everything we love about Gold Chains. The bad-ass, masculine beats and lyrics of "I Come From San Francisco" were replaced by what sounded to us like a weird dancehall-meets-electroclash with a '90s-trying-to-be-the-'80s vibe. We hate to perpetuate the dreaded, old cliché, "I like his early stuff better," but it unfortunately applied to Thursday night's show.

When Of Montreal took the stage, they gave us two parties' worth of pop-saturated, disco-inspired, dancing up-and-down fun. They started their set with one of our favorites: "Disconnect the Dots," and we were smitten for the rest of the night. Every member was very cute and energetic and played their instruments with precision, and they all seemed so infectiously in love with love. As usual, there were a great deal of man-made fibers represented in the band's wardrobe, including lead singer Kevin Barnes' red, patent vinyl trenchcoat and matching hot pants, the former of which he stripped off halfway through the set. Our hetero male companion said he even wanted to do him and/or be him. Additional props to guitar player Matt Dawson, who was sporting his trademark faux fur, Russian-style hat without breaking a sweat. And we can't tell you how much we wished we were the awesome keyboard player Dottie Alexander, the only female amidst a super fun group of guys.

Those of you who went to any of their Great American shows this weekend, let us know how they went in the comments.

Photo of Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes at Bottom of the Hill courtesy of fenchurch.

By SFist Leanne