Making love like a pair of black wizards is never an easy thing to do. Unless you’re  Mr. Kevin Barnes, the frontman of an indie-pop band , Of Montreal with  roots from Athens, Georgia. Putting on a neurotically avante-garde show is only one of the few talents that  the band possesses.

It’s not even 6 o’clock on a Friday night in Manhattan, but outside of the Terminal 5 music venue, an army of starving fans dressed in skittle -colored clothing are clenching their sweaty fists,while agitatedly waiting for the security to let the crowd begin its flow. The intergalactic monarch and opener of the night, Janelle Monae left the fans hungry for more of her electrically  polished dance moves and nymphet sound.

While Monae built up the acid- trip energy for the night, Of Montreal astounded  the massive crowd into another break loose lunatic spiral. Labyrynth’s Goblin king- inspired attire, retro double-necked guitar,  gas masks, crucifix, pillow-fights, confetti, feathers, oh yes, and half-naked girls in diapers joining Barnes and the band during the act. Surprisingly enough, Of Montreal brought back their  2005 album, Sunlandic Twins.  Its  hypnotizing guitars and catchy lyrics had all the fans singing along to the “The Party’s Crashing Us Now.”  Also performed “I was never young,” “ Forecast, Fascist, Future,” “An Eluardian Instance”set off an uncoordinated, free -flowing tone that the band was touring for enjoyment, rather just for the promotion of their magnetically ingenious album Skeletal Lamping. Hissing Fauna also made quiet a number of  surprising appearances.A lthough the album presents an interpersonal reflection on the front man’s tenebrous year, Barnes’ performance says otherwise. 

 Halfway down, “Cato as a Pun “ and” Sink the Seine” manifested the sound and kicked off any melancholic taste that the  album references to. Towards the end of the set, the show was sort of a rolling sticky ball of bizarre.  Meanwhile, Barnes’ wife, Nina and daughter, Alabee  bewilderedly danced onstage sporting splashy costumes  and wigs. The  night ended with an encore and the band performing Diana Ross’s “Love Hangover”, during which Monae and  Solange Knowles joined the jam.
–By Viktorsha Uliyanova