Here we are now, entertain us

First gig in Manchester: Of Montreal with Casiokids opening

On Tuesday, John and I bought tickets for the show (which was last night at the Manchester Club Academy). We're not huge fans of Of Montreal, but we know them well enough that it was worth the £12.50 to check out the Manchester concert scene and just to have a good time.

Boy was it worth it!

I can't really describe what I saw. Well I can take you through what I was thinking in a chronological fashion:

1. Pretty good, nice electronic music. Is the guy lip syncing? The mic is in his right hand by his side, but he's singing into drum sticks? (Casiokids)
2. John's Canadian flatmate thinks Casiokids might be singing in French. Not sure if that's true, but Internet research after the concert shows that Casiokids are Norwegian.
3. The crowd is full of tall British hipsters. I can't see anything. :(
4. I'm trying not to slip on the beer that is being spilled from cups because people are moving to the music. Hey, at least people are moving, better than a CMU concert.
5. Of Montreal taking the stage. One of their guys is dressed in a powder blue tux and a tiger mask???

Little did I know that this was not going to be the strangest thing I saw all night. Apparently I didn't know Of Montreal very well. Try "not at all."

I thought I was going to a twee, innocent indie pop concert like New Pornographers', but was I wrong. The tiger in a powder blue tux was a really big clue. Then the rest of the band took the stage. The lead singer was dressed so flamboyantly like a queen that I couldn't stop looking at his eyes -- solid blue eyeshadow for about 1" radius around his eyes. He was wearing a frilly white dress shirt and actually reminded me of a male figure skater. The rest of the band members were dressed in varying degrees of ridiculousity (made that word up).

They started off their set and the crowd instantly went crazy. As crazy as it can get at an indie pop concert. I'm pretty sure this is what a hipster dance party is like. A girl standing in front of me had a feather headdress on so I didn't feel out of place with my shutter shades. I'm not familiar with the Of Montreal discography to talk about what songs they played, although I recognized a couple of my favorites (like Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games and Requiem for O.M.M.).

Throughout the concert, there were a bunch of "skits." They mostly consisted of the band members wearing animal masks and performing s&m (they even said so). Bizarre! Later, a machine sprayed white feathers out into audience! I didn't get any feather action because I was standing too far away, though. A box rigged above the stage released gold dust on the band members during a song. The animals changed into black leotards and red masks and ran about the audience before returning to the stage and lifting the lead singer up for the ending of a song. Then they changed into blob-like bright pink spandex and performed strange pantomime-like gestures.

At some point, I thought I was watching a satanic cult proceeding. One of the band members, donning a pair of devil horns, proceeded to take off his shirt and basically roar at the crowds. Not to be undone, the lead singer also took off his shirt, but by the end of the song, he somehow was covered in foam. I don't know how that happened since I was standing too far back. Actually, I'd rather not know. Yes, there were heaping generous amounts of strange antics.

Sure it was a good time. I was enjoying it more than I was expecting to. I generally like going to concerts when I know the band well, but this was working out to be a quite acceptable hipster dance party. Then the finale...

SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT

Yes, they dared perform a cover of the Nirvana song. Right before that, they did a cover of Tom Petty's American Girl, which was lost on some of the crowd, but not on the Americans. Then Nirvana.

The crowd went crazy. A mosh pit instantly formed about two feet away from me, which John pushed me towards. And we were in the mosh pit for the rest of the song. The crowd was jumping up and down, trying not to slip on the beer that people had spilled from rocking out. I was also making sure none of the stuff in my pockets fell out. But that didn't stop me from having a good time, being shoved around a little and feeling so very American in the middle of the UK. \m/

I couldn't hear anything after the concert; in fact I'm only starting to regain hearing at some frequencies as I write this. But damn, that was a great first concert in Manchester. And it'll only get better after this.

EDIT: Someone graciously uploaded the finale on youtube.