Nostalgia can be weird. of Montreal were never one of the bands I was obsessed with in the mid 00's, but I always liked them. They always seemed like they'd be a fun band to see live, but I never quite got around to it. 2025 is the twentieth anniversary of their hit album The Sundlandic Twins, and as soon as they announced their current tour would be a full album performance, I knew I wanted to go when it hit Boston.
Being an indie rock snob, I typically see shows but not performances. Tuesday night was a performance. There were video screens throughout Royale showing moving images made up of The Sunlandic Twins' cover artwork, and before singer/guitarist Kevin Barnes took the stage, a pair clad in white skintight costumes took the stage with the images of the figures on the album cover projected onto them. The band including Barnes were wearing mostly pink and red, giving the entire evening the feel of being more of an affair than a concert. (A number of people in attendance also fully dressed up for the show, adding to the vibe of the night.) Throughout the show, the band was joined by a trio of dancers wearing costumes ranging from crows to everything being sparkly. Like I said, much more of a performance than I typically see.
One thing interesting about these full album performance shows is that you pretty much already know the setlist before it even starts, and you sometimes get the biggest hits early in the show. of Montreal's biggest hit (or at least the one I associate them with the most), "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)" is the third track on The Sunlandic Twins, and thus was played third. It didn't seem to dampen the festivities, and even the artsier, more experimental tracks got an almost equal reaction from the of Montreal diehards in attendance. It's also easy to forget just how great a song like "The Party's Crashing Us" is, but that one has been stuck in my head relentlessly since it was played Tuesday night.
Typically when a band performs a full album, they'll leave the stage after finishing the album and then come back for a greatest hits not on the album encore. of Montreal did something interesting and played three songs included on the twentieth anniversary edition of The Sundlandic Twins, followed by a mindblowing cover of David Bowie's "Suffragette City," which was even more perfect than you could be imagining.
I was looking forward to seeing cumgirl8 open the show, especially since I hadn't seen them since they opened for Le Tigre at the same venue two years before. However, they dropped off last minute due to an emergency and were replaced with Boston's own Layzi. It says quite a bit for Layzi that they were able to overcome my immediate disappointment with a great show. They played a fantastic set of indie rock meets bedroom pop that won over the crowd quickly. Singer Carissa Myre had a great level of confidence and it was impossible not to be won over by her after a song or two. A great cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" (my personal favorite) was used perfectly to convert any hold outs.
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