Of Montreal / the Minders

The Minders began their set at 8:30, a half-hour after it was supposed to start. Legendary St. Louisan Beetle Bob introduced them with praise of “a great new band who will get big.” Their set totaled about a half-hour long with about five or six songs. I am not familiar with the Minders at all and knew none of the songs. They played their set fine, but were nothing new or original, my favorite parts being the few little instrumental segments in the middle of one of their songs. Not that the vocals or lyrics (or what I understood of them) were particularly bad, they just weren’t anything special or worth noting. One thing worth noting though, was the finale of their set. They introduced it as a tribute to someone who had just died; I didn’t catch the name at first as to whom they were referring to, but as the opening guitar of Pink Floyd’s “Lucifer Sam” came on, I knew they were talking about Syd Barrett. They played “Lucifer Sam” wonderfully, complete with a confusingly controlled bridge, or what could be called a bridge in a Barrett song. Definitely the highlight of the set.

After about a twenty or thirty-minute wait, Beetle Bob once again took the stage and said that he saw the next band play at Lollapalooza and they blew away a stadium, or something along those lines, I don’t totally remember. What I do remember though, was my girlfriend saying she was much more excited to see them because of his introduction. As Bob walked off the stage, the lights dimmed and a heavy bass beat filled the club. The band came out waving flags, and wearing skirts and dresses. Kevin Barnes, the frontman, sure knows how to lead. He came out in a short green skirt and a frilly red shirt, of which he changed three times throughout the night. First into white pants and a blinding gold shirt, and second into a different red shirt. The band opened with “Wrath Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” and proceeded to dance and jump through the rest of their set.

They began hesitantly, but as the crowd began to get into it more, the band opened up and moved around more as well. They also introduced about 4 new songs off of their album coming out early next year. It sounded like the natural next step from The Sunlandic Twins. One of the songs, though, was particularly great, though the title now escapes me. It was something along the lines of “She’s The...” something. I don’t remember. I enjoyed that one a lot though. By the end of their set (about 10 songs), they as well as everyone else was sweaty and tired. After a short reprieve, Bob once again got up on stage and asked if we wanted more. Of course the resounding answer was yes, we do in fact, want more. Of Montreal came back on stage and talked a little bit about how they like music of all varieties, and that the next song they were playing was a black person’s song. They proceed to go into a beautiful cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” The bass line, in my opinion, improved greatly with the fingers of Jason NeSmith, OM’s bassist. They did a wonderful job on it and Barnes flailed around and sang the song as if it were his own. They played two more songs in their encore before finally leaving the stage for good.

All in all it was a good show put on by Of Montreal, not amazing, but a lot of fun; the Minders were nothing special save for their cover of “Lucifer Sam."

Songs, aside from 4 new ones and maybe a couple others:

• Wrath Pinned to the Mist and Other Games
• Requiem for O.M.M.2
• I Was Never Young
• Forecast Fascist Future
• So Begins Our Alabee
• Oslo in the Summertime
• My British Tour Diary
• Crazy [Gnarls Barkley]