My Drug of Choice
Yesterday was a crappy day for me. I have those sometimes. For no reason really. Bad chemicals maybe? Who knows? I was just lethargic and irritable and couldn't really get myself going. CoolMom, CoolDaughter 1, and I took CoolDog on a nice walk in the park which was ok. Then I just came home and kind of dozed by the pool and never really got my ass in gear. I wasn't even going to go to the of Montreal show at Asbury Lanes. I've gotten better at pushing through days like that, though. So I showered; ate dinner; and headed out.
There were only two bands on the bill: Mothers from Athens, Georgia and their neighbors and compadres, headliners of Montreal. When I walked in at about 7:45, there was already a group of fans two rows deep pressed up against the stage. That's how you can tell when a lot of people have come from out of town for a show at the Lanes. The regulars tend to mill around and push up front when a band takes the stage. Young out-of-towners always do that festival thing of staking out a spot hours before the headliner comes on. I could tell that taking pictures would be a challenge.
Mothers are on their first-ever tour and played to a packed out floor in front of the stage. That's one benefit of the early lineup thing. Openers get to play to almost the full audience.
Mothers are riding a bit of buzz created by the recent release of their only publicly available recorded output, single "no crying in baseball." Guitarist / vocalist Kristine Leschper sits somewhere in the space between a haunting wail and spoken word, and the rest of the band creates swirling soundscapes around her. They've got a full-length due in 2016, so watch for that.
It was a while between the end of Mothers' set and when of Montreal took the stage. That gave me a chance to hang with a few of Asbury's coolest in the lounge. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as the floor got more and more packed; and when the red-masked master of ceremonies came out to introduce the band, I started worming my way to stage left. I'd end up kind of stuck there for the whole set, but it allowed me to take in just about everything -- from the costumed dancers to the psychedelic light show.
While I love almost everything that has come out of Athens's Elephant 6 collective, I'll admit to being less familiar with of Montreal beyond their biggest songs. That didn't matter. The band's 19-song set was an almost non-stop barrage of sights and sounds with frontman / mastermind Kevin Barnes leading what felt, at times, like a joyous religious revival meeting.
Light, shadow, large-breasted poodle boxers, cattle-skulled apparitions, projections, and of Montreal's wild psychedelic sounds whipped the sweaty mass into a frenzy. Barnes was like some strange mix of Lennon, Wilson, Bowie, and his own secret ingredient. There were kisses from masked dancers. There was weeping in the front row.
I took a ton of pictures from my spot at the side of the stage. There were plenty of times, though, when I just did my thing of closing my eyes and letting the sounds wash over me. Even through my clamped eyelids, I could sense the flickering projections and feel the pulsing of the crowd. Following the final song of the evening, Barnes unplugged his guitar, climbed down from the stage, and moved past me into the audience towards the back of the room.
I gathered my stuff together and felt like I'd just gotten a dose of the most effective anti-depressant out there. I'd sung along with "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)," "Coquet Coquette," and "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider;" and I'd just been carried along for the rest of the set. My shirt stuck to me as I made my way out into the evening. It was only about 11.
CoolMom was still awake when I got in, and I'm happy she got to see a better side of me before she turned in for the night. Whatever it is that crawls up inside my head sometimes and makes me tough to be around, it's nice to know that the cure is musical and not chemical.
Here are some highlights from last night. The rest of the pics are in the Flickr galleries.
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