Of Montreal >> Take Over Atlanta [Terminal West]

Of Montreal >> got me through University. They were there for everything. Their music was there when I studied, after bad breakups and was always there when just having fun. Ah, yes the good times had. Their music is like a rhythmic fantastical for me, what great talent, what great sounds and voice - I love it! How I miss being young and at University but I’m lucky one of my fav bands is still alive and rockin’.

Of Montreal >> Terminal West

Of Montreal came into Atlanta on Saturday night to play Terminal West at Kings Plow. Terminal West is a quaint and cozy venue in a now trendy part of Atlanta. I usually watch shows from the balcony of the rooftop deck which provides a better view of the stage for me because, unfortunately, being five-two is not fun at concerts. Of Montreal has been a great band since the early days of their musical adventure in the mid-90’s. This band is truly magical when it comes to their music making and even more magical when it comes to their live performances. If you have ever seen The Flaming Lips before and enjoyed yourself, then you will be in awe with Of Montreal's live performance. No one can top The Flaming Lips when it comes to adventurists’ theatrics in their live shows but Of Montreal comes extremely close.

Experimental rock, alternative rock, discoteque party music, rock with synth. All these terms have been used to describe their sound and all these are true.

I was wowed right from the get go of the show. There were two opening acts before Of Montreal hit the stage for a sold out crowd. Pillar Point is a good band with a sound of a synth/alternative rock band. Monsoon is a trio with a punk/swing sound that rocks. After both opening acts, it was time for the main event. This is what I had been waiting for and I was not disappointed in any way.

You think that you are on a trip when you see Of Montreal perform live. The theatrics of having an all-white backdrop along with all white clothing is something interesting when the band first enters onto the stage. Once the projection of images scrolls on to the all-white it all works beautifully together for an awesome night of theater. The imagery was one of a mish-mosh of different graffiti and some other pictures that some would say did not have anything to do with the music. I, on the other hand would have it no other way. To actually understand everything on the screen or on the white fabric of their outfits as it went scrolling across their clothes is not the point of the Of Montreal concert experience. It is meant to be fun and a fun time was had by all indeed.

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Excitement of the atmosphere was at a mind-blowing high from the first song to the last song. The different elements of surprises that included the various images on the backdrop to different costumed characters [all in white] coming onto the stage made for a theater show along with a concert. These characters only added to the imagery whether it was to be a cat with smoke coming out of its mouth or a boxing hero against a boxing animal character. The cat was especially interesting to me because, not only do I love cats, but it was a costume of all white holding a round circle with white fabric covering that used the bass player as the hind part of the cat. There was someone inside blowing a smoke machine out of the cats mouth cut-out. All of this was white until the imagery of paisley/calico imager were projected onto to it. Then you could figure out that it was a cat. Very good use of projectory of images into all-white fabric was used throughout this performance. I really liked the use of the white fabric with projections to add a 3-D effect to the concert. At one point during the Of Montreal performance there was what looked to be a ghost like angel that had imagery projected onto the costume character to make it more like a prism, with all its sparkling colors of light encompassing it. Spinning around with arm like movements to where it appears to be an angel. This was the biggest highlight of the performance for me.

The sound of the band were all in tune and it was what makes the show. With the keyboards going, guitarists and bass along with drums were all keeping with the beat to make this whole magic of music work together for the crowd. The vocals were on point which was no surprise from such a rockin’ band. Many things can be said about the abundance of imagery that was given to the audience that Saturday night, but it didn’t matter. The performance itself was entertaining. Of Montreal performance took you, the audience, on an audio and visual journey!

Tiffini

Tiffini

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