Of Montreal at Roseland Ballroom

Before seeing of Montreal at Roseland Ballroom yesterday, I had seen them once previously, about a year or so ago. Having seen them before, I knew that the band gloriously lives up to its quirky, innovative sounds and general sense of free-spirited fun.

Rolling Stone Magazine discusses lead singer Kevin Barnes and his band in an article, "The Surreal Life," which reveals that Barnes has a darker side that has often affected his music. It discusses, for example, that Barnes contemplated suicide after realizing his wife was pregnant. Was this his fear of having to assume the responsibilities of a father and an adult? Regardless, the act of him attempting suicide by hanging himself was re-enacted onstage last night. Disturbing.

The odd thing was that otherwise the performance was generally supremely fun-filled. With large-scale video backdrops, (some directly from their music videos), choreographed costumed dancing and theatrics, and even a white horse onstage, of Montreal's performance was a non-stop colorful tour-de-force.
Brooklynvegan has a more critical review of the show, but has an amazing slew of images that much more precisely give an insider view to the theatricality of the performance.

Wikipedia describes the band's and Kevin Barnes's history a bit more in-depth.