While on holiday in the Philippines and trying to control myself from smashing a local mobile Internet dongle into tiny specks of dust, I’ve decided to calm myself down by writing a blog post for a gig back in London which happened 20 days ago.

Terribly late and pointless already. I know, so bite me.

A year ago at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, I was exposed to my first live performance by of Montreal and I was quite blown away at how amazing they were. Their catchy pop-esque music and visual flair made the show even better.

Upon hearing the upcoming release of a new album, I knew a tour wouldn’t be far behind. The catchy songs from their new album instantly caught on after a few listened and talks about a story of new found love which ended in bitter heartbreak. As depressing as this may sound, this is presented in of Montreal’s usual upbeat tempo and Kevin Barnes’ fascinatingly cheerful voice.

I immediately grew fond of the song Famine Affair off this record and thinking they would place this song during their set made me anticipate the show even more.

Cats In Paris was the support band for the evening. Their previous support band was Local Natives which you may have heard of now since they got pretty big since then. Not “Temper Trap“ big, but reasonably popular than before.

Cats In Paris is another band from Manchester with some synth-pop thrown in the mix. Wait, I think I’ve been using the previous sentence in previous posts for months now. What sets Cats In Paris apart from the other synth-pop bands is that they are quite a bit crazier than others and were a perfect fit as a support band such as of Montreal. Seriously, a band who has a song called chopchopchopchopchop is pretty crazy in my book.

Craziness aside, their music was really interested and definitely worth a second listen at home.

While waiting for of Montreal to come up on stage, my only thoughts were on what surprises they had in store for us this time around. The last time, Kevin Barnes was carried on stage by two costumed beings so expectations where high on this.

At the start of their set, the lights dimmed as usual and of Montreal came up on stage except for Kevin. In his absence was a person with a mask which was a mix between a fish and a gas mask.

Kevin followed shortly after in a pretty fancy outfit which included a skirt. They opened up the evening with their new single, Coquet Coquette, from their new album, False Priest.

Below is the full setlist for the evening.

• Coquet Coquette
• The Party’s Crashing Us
• Our Riotous Defects
• You Do Mutilate?
• Gronlandic Edit
• Bunny Ain’t No Kind Of Rider
• Like A Tourist
• Plastis Wafers
• St. Exquisite’s Confessions
• Enemy Gene
• Sex Karma
• She’s A Rejector
• Casualty Of You
• Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
• For Our Elegant Caste
• A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger
• The Past Is A Grotesque Animal (encore)

7 songs from their new album, False Priest. 3 songs from Skeletal Lamping (2008). Surprisingly, 6 songs from Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?. A single song from The Sunlandic Twins. It was quite a mix of their catchier songs from their albums.

The surprise was them playing more songs from Hissing Fauna which is a fantastic album and songs from this album really charged up the crowd.

The encore was not a surprise though. As epic and marvelous as The Past Is A Grotesque Animal is, I was secretly crossing my fingers and hoping they come back and play two to three short but good songs instead. Nonetheless, hearing this song as their encore was still totally incredible.

An of Montreal show would never be complete without some pretty eccentric, weird and crazy acts on stage. As expected, they didn’t fall short on the quirky and unusual stage acts which included costumed animals, blank masks being  painted on stage, a couple fighting, fishnets, wings, and settling the argument on stage. This also involved flashy images projected on stage.

As you may have also noticed on the setlist, Famine Affair is missing. Sadly, they didn’t play the song. Neither was I Feel Ya Stutter which is another catchy and happy song.

I was quite looking forward to these songs but was not royally disappointed when they didn’t do them. This is of Montreal and I would happily pay to see them again just so I could hear them play Famine Affair live.

Even if they don’t, their unusual stage acts, performances and upbeat music make a trip to see of Montreal worth every penny.