Paul Rudd (feat. Of Montreal) @ Studio B

Last night I trekked all the way out to Greenpoint to see psychedelic glam rockers Of Montreal blow the minds of a club of jaded hipsters with a set of their own material followed by an even more entertaining set as the world's greatest karaoke machine. As expected, they skipped over their earlier glee pop material (which wouldn't quite fit their MO at this point) in favor of their darker, more dancable recent material (I think I may have even seen a few members of the audience nodding their heads in a way that approaches actual dancing). Despite the coziness of the venue, the band still came with full theatrical force. I recognized most of the props from the "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" video and their performance on Conan the other night, and the show was worth the price of admission just to see what the mustached guy in the black body suit would come out with next. I also counted at least four costume changes from Kevin Barnes, including a 10-foot-tall robe that put him at about eye level with the stage lights (though he was kind enough to keep his pants on for the duration of the show).













Then, after a brief intermission, Michael Showalter came on as his character from Wet Hot American Summer to deliver a series of (intentionally) terrible jokes and MC for the karaoke portion of the show. The band blew through an eclectic mix of songs that varried anywhere from ABBA to the Pixies without breaking a sweat (of particular note was Kevin Barnes effortless shredding of the guitar solo on "Sweet Child O Mine"). At points I felt bad for the singers, like the awkward Asian kid that came up to sing the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" in full Ray Davies getup only to have his vocals killed by microphone problems. At other points I felt sorry for the band, as when these two obnoxious girls came up to sing "Blister In the Sun" (not a difficult song by any means) and completely fucked it up. Though, for the most part, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of both the vocals and the performances. The guy who did "Moonage Daydream" dressed as Aquaman was truly inspired, and the "Rocks Off" guy was so spot-on in his Jagger impersonation that I wondered what the fuck the two of them were doing performing karaoke instead of, say, starting a band. Michael Showalter's performance of INXS's "Need You Tonight" (totally in character) was excellent, though by far the best performance of the night came when Paul Rudd came on stage with David Wain (of Stella/State/WHAS fame) to do a kick-ass rendition of "More Than a Feeling". Wain put up a good effort but was completely upstaged by Rudd, who confirmed my suspicions that he might, in fact, be the greatest comic actor of his generation.



(props to the folks at Stereogum for posting these videos.)