As the lights at the 9:30 Club dimmed, the Sigil of Baphomet was suddenly projected across the stage, prompting a roaring applause.
This insignia of the Church of Satan is more likely to introduce a death metal band than of Montreal, a progressive pop and glam rock group. Still, the members of the group marched onto the stage one at a time in a truly Satanic fashion, dressed in dark robes with hoods that draped over their faces.
The final member to reach the stage was frontman Kevin Barnes, with smoke billowing out from under his hood. At this point I had to confirm with my neighbor that this was indeed of Montreal, known more for their flamboyance and pageantry.
As if to answer my question, the group simultaneously disrobed, revealing Barnes’ glamorous outfit: a white apron, red tights, slippers and a transparent, floral cape, with the other four band members dressed uniformly in bright, white garments. Their costumes served as additional backdrops for the constant, psychedelic light show that accompanied their performance.
The band opened with “it’s different for girls,” the first single off their 2016 album Innocence Reaches. As Barnes skipped around the stage flirtatiously, two dancers with prosthetic faces and rigid, bouffant-styled wigs joined him.
Each song transitioned seamlessly to the next without pause, despite Barnes often leaving the stage for a costume change. The drums maintained the rhythm and energy of the show while Barnes was offstage, often helped by the spectacle of the dancers’ outlandish costumes, always with an ornate mask to match.
The constant costume changes and occasional stripping from Barnes added a signature touch to the promiscuous performance. When he crooned the lyrics “I want to belong to you” wearing nothing but a pair of red-striped briefs and crimson tights while coolly gyrating his hips, he captivated the audience with his alluring energy. The influences of genre pioneers David Bowie and Queen were evident throughout the show, and there seemed to be musical tributes to the likes of Prince and Michael Jackson, as well.
The 9:30 Club, an intimate venue with the aesthetic of a nuclear bunker from the outside, was the sixth stop on a 23-day marathon tour. This is only part one; they have another 20 days of consecutive performances starting up in October.
“The biggest challenge so far has been maintaining physical health,” said singer Ruby the RabbitFoot during the first leg of the band’s tour.
But despite the rigors of performing nightly and traveling to a new city every day, Ruby Kendrick, the RabbitFoot’s legal name, said opening for of Montreal — to promote her recently released album, Divorce Party — is a “literal dream come true.”
Of Montreal’s set pulled heavily from Innocence Reaches and their 2007 release Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? The group ended its set with a call back to the opening track, “it’s different for girls,” during which all of the dancers returned to the stage to stage dive, shoot confetti at the crowd and engage the audience with exhilarating dance moves.
After what felt like several minutes of raucous applause, the group re-emerged for a brief encore, energetically performing the fan-favorites “Suffer for Fashion” and “Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse.”
The electric singing and masterful crowd-captivating dancing from Barnes and his fellow dancers, along with the expert instrumentation, made the show an eccentric exercise in pushing the boundaries of the socially acceptable. Twenty years of performing has taught Barnes how to own the stage and captivate an audience.
