At the beginning of Of Montreal's set at the Granada on Tuesday, I experienced one of those moments of vague disappointment in which it becomes apparent a band may not meet your expectations. They played the first couple songs from their new album, in order and with absolutely no sign of interest or enthusiasm. The mix sounded awful. The audience stood painfully still. The energy level was nonexistent compared to the exuberance of the preceding act, Japanese psych-popsters Elekibass. Having heard horror stories about Of Montreal on their off nights, I'm thinking, "Shit, I drove to Lawrence on a week night for this?"

Luckily, though, the show mirrored the narrative arc of their newest album, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? Just as their loose concept album, the outfit's most personal to date, follows the transformation of frontman Kevin Barnes from a man in a state of lethargy and depression into a black transvestite named Georgie Fruit, Barnes gradually came out of his shell, and as the night went on he became increasingly affable and animated, delivering his epic slices of indie-pop enlightenment with all the swagger of a Bowie or Prince. After the first few songs, he ran backstage and changed his costume during an instrumental. Gone were his elfish jacket and popped collar, replaced by glittery spandex shorts, fishnet stockings, and a very trendy pair of boots. He pranced around the stage and danced provocatively, all with a brilliant theatrical faux-seriousness, presumably unleashing his inner Georgie Fruit. And the crowd, naturally, followed suit.

The band's stage show proved appropriately elaborate for the their newfound glam aesthetic. Aside from Barnes' multiple costumes, his bandmates sported an absurd amount of glitter and ridiculous clothing, including a particularly cool pair of angel wings worn by guitarist Bryan Poole. (Word on the street is that all that money from the infamous Outback commercial went toward costumes for the tour). Three projectors stretched across the stage, playing various tripped-out video clips. At one point, Barnes climbed atop a ladder and donned a ten foot dress. While definitely a spectacle, it never distracted from the music, offering a visual aid to its always slightly skewed sound.

The set drew entirely from their three most recent, more electronic albums, but nobody seemed to mind much. While their older, more stereotypically Elephant 6-influenced material is certainly enjoyable, their new approach is radically different and, in my opinion, far superior. Highlights included cuts from Sunlandic Twins, such as the anthemic "Requiem For O.M.M. 2" and "The Party's Crashing Us Now," as well as "Rapture Rapes the Muses" and "Lysergic Bliss" from Satanic Panic In The Attic. New songs, however, still received as warm a welcome as any, and the schizophrenic "She's A Rejector" and "Bunny Ain't No Kind Of Rider" certainly got the kids moving. I could complain about them not playing some of their more well-known songs -- I think everybody would have liked to hear "Wraith Pinned To The Mist" or "Disconnect the Dots" -- but all of their material is strong enough that there weren't any noticeable holes in the performance. They ended the night with a rollicking cover of the Fiery Furnaces' "Tropical Iceland," arousing a danceability in it I didn't know it possessed.

All in all, despite a rocky start, Of Montreal's show surely didn't leave anybody disappointed, and provided one hell of a Fat Tuesday dance party with plenty of antics which won't leave the collective indie memory for a while.

-- Danny Giordano (email)

Click a thumbnail below to view.