Oh man, Of Montreal were so freaking awesome last night. I can’t believe we went, honestly. Never mind either of us rarely do that kind of thing, we only actually noticed they were playing five hours before the doors opened as we were walking to the cinema. It was in this tiny little venue above a bar, I guess there was room for ~200 people at most?

They were supported by The Video Nasties and The Strange Death Of Liberal England, neither of whom sucked. This was a nice surprise, since the last time I saw a warm-up act that didn’t suck was the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster warming up for Placebo when I was still in school (Placebo, on the other hand, sucked pretty bad that evening).

But yeah, Montreal blew all that came before out of the goddamn water. It was all psychedelic and disturbing, partly from the background visuals, and partly because over the first few songs Kevin Barnes removed layers of clothing until he was performing in a red cravat and a pair of pink glittered y-fronts. Then someone brings a step-ladder on-stage and he climbs on top and dons this bizarre silk clown-outfit-poncho-thing that went right to the floor. I think that was for I Was Never Young? I really don’t remember.

They played some old stuff, some new stuff, the stuff I knew all the words to by heart, and then they finished up with a cover of All Day And All Of The Night that had the crowd going fucking nuts.

From there Helen and I went to The Alley cafe, where it was open mic dub night or something? We forgot it wasn’t Friday though, so it was panic o’clock when we realised we missed the last Red Arrow. Long story short: we’re wandering around and see a bus that takes around an hour just about to leave and leap on just in time.

I love it when a plan comes together~