August 2006, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga.
I remember the day after this show, standing in line for coffee at Hot Corner (which is now a beer hall called Trappeze) behind a group of people with glitter on their faces. I looked at Kristen and we quickly realized it was of Montreal, and we had a little laugh. It’s not a common occurrence, seeing the band you watched the night before, casually getting coffee the following morning. Unless of course you live in Athens.
I had not seen of Montreal before this date, though the Athens band was no stranger to the 40 Watt, but this time in the band’s history saw it reaching unparalleled levels of popularity. Like it or not, the Outback Steakhouse song (called “Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)”), brought new attention to the band. It also had back-to-back albums — 2004’s Satanic Panic in the Attic and 2005’s The Sunlandic Twins — which saw bandleader Kevin Barnes at a creative apex. Of Montreal toured the world and won crowds over with a live show nothing short of a bacchanal.
Since this time I’ve seen of Montreal several times at the Watt — it always plays there a couple times a year — and it’s always a packed affair, with a costume party, free-flowing liquor tilt to it. This August 2006 show, nearly coinciding with the start of fall classes at UGA, was unlike many shows I’ve been to. It was a moving mass of dancing bodies, splashing beer, and glitter.
Barnes comes out on stage in a wedding dress and announces, too much shouting delight, that he wants to marry the audience, which of course he does. With the nuptials in place, the band kicks into “Wraith Pinned,” and the wedding party was on.
Of Montreal is one of the few bands whose albums are arranged like live shows, where the tempo of the audience dictates the next song. It’s also one of those bands where I recognize songs solely by tempo and not by name, because remembering what “Old People In the Cemetery,” “Rapture Rapes the Muses” and “Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider” is never gonna happen.
I found some MP3s of the show online, which confirmed some names of songs, but really the show was one long jump for joy in a sweaty 40 Watt. The main set ended with “So Begins Our Alabee,” another song from Sunlandic Twins which gained worldwide popularity. After a three-song encore the crowd was more than satisfied, for another night the band fulfilled its mission of leaving the crowd in a happy daze.
And besides, of Montreal would be back soon enough.
