Hissing Fauna: Definitely the Destroyer.

Of Montreal destroyed me last night. Honestly, I don't think I've ever danced so hard at a concert. After mutually convincing and being convinced to pay the (gulp!) 25 euro ticket price, three friends and I headed off to see the Atlanta, Georgia based band at Le Bataclan. The plan was to miss the 6pm DJ sets, show up at around 7:30 and see some cool stuff. However, the Paris forecast decided to kick in and live up to it's prediction of "rain." Understatement of the century. I have never gotten so wet so fast. And after decided that standing dripping for several hours was not the best idea ever, we grabbed a metro back to my house, dried off and headed out, arriving a bit after 8:30, grinned, and made our way into the rather large concert hall for almost all of Syd Matters' opening set. I'd seen him open for Yann Tiersen; he played a good, largely English set both times, and his band was very solid, and very obviously adored by his Parisian friends. So when the curtains closed, the lights came on, and quite a few people filtered out, we got a little worried.

Luckily, Of Montreal does not disappoint. They had NOT already played, in fact they came on and played about an hour and a half of the strongest, sexiest, sleekest indie pop on the market. And even walking onstage with a mostly empty bottle of wine, Kevin Barnes played the most confident and solid show I'd seen... perhaps it's just the Paris vibe--Northampton, Massachusetts isn't be the most inspiring place to play, comparatively. Also, between the first time I saw them and this third time, their discography has grown respectably- particularly with the brilliant addition of Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? from which most of the nights' set was taken. Complete with delicious, winged costumes and just a generally sparkly appearance, Barnes and Co. put on a delightful, sweaty, squeal-inducing show.

Highlights included... who am I kidding? Every song was amazing. A near-perfect setlist (I prefered to hear the new stuff, as their other shows were mostly Sunlandic Twins, and Satanic Panic... however, this show was pretty much entirely Hissing Fauna) and the high energy (Kevin on a stepladder for Gronlandic Edit, crazy dancing for The Past is a Grosteque Animal... which ended in a make-out session with some front row girl) made for a very entertaining evening.

The moral of the story is: Of Montreal are with 25 euros. Even in the rain.

Rooney @ La Boule Noire

May 16th
I was biased about this concert, let me start by putting that out there. A friend decided not to go the day before the show and gave me the ticket a few hours before... I like Rooney, but they certainly aren't one of my top bands. Also, after waiting an hour an a half after door time for the concert to start, the lack of opening band and mere hour of playing time were all factors in the experience, of course. All that said, I had a surprisingly good time. I was reminded rather strongly of OK Go, the first time I saw them, several years ago... much less well known than they are now, and therefore a little bit more pressured to do well to make it for themselves. On the other hand, stating that these two new songs (actually, the new songs were quite good live) are located on your myspace page might not be the most subtle way to get your point across. It also isn't really the best idea to tell your audience to clap and sing before you have. Definite points for a band that works well together live after a cancelled show in Germany the night before. I hope their self promotion works out for them, the upcoming album seems to have potential.