Bring Of Montreal (Out)back

Last Saturday afternoon, there was just one question on every Columbian’s mind. It was posed among the sunbathers on South Lawn and the diligent nerds toiling in Butler, from the corner of 114th and Broadway all the way up to the wasteland at 120th and Amsterdam. SEAS senior or geriatric GS student, English major or econ wonk, cigarette-smoking hipster or Natty Light-swilling frat bro, all of us were asking the same thing: “When will of Montreal play that Outback Steakhouse song?”

Let me back up and give some context for those of you who hate fun, television, and/or Australian-themed family restaurant chains. Of Montreal is a deceptively named band (its members hail from Athens, Ga.—the more you know!) that headlined the April 24 Bacchanal concert. The group is notorious among people who care about this sort of thing for playing psychedelic pop tunes and, during their live shows, either wearing wacky outfits or forgoing clothes completely (lead singer Kevin Barnes especially loves performing naked).

But, despite those quirky signatures, the band is most widely known for something decidedly more mainstream. In 2006, of Montreal altered the lyrics of a bouncy, faux-erudite song called “Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)”: “We’ll have bizarre celebrations/I’ll play the satyr in Cyprus/You the bride being stripped bare/Let’s pretend we don’t exist”—to transform it into a jingle for Outback Steakhouse: “Let’s kick back for the moment/Toss all your worries in the air/’Cause you’ll forget them when you’re there/Let’s go Outback tonight.”

Snooty indie rock fans, of course, were none too pleased to see one of their favorite bands selling out. “I personally can’t see why either party would agree to this, or who this commercial would appeal to,” one typical comment left on music site Stereogum in September 2006 stated. “The small portion of viewers who know the song will probably want to eat at Outback less because of this, and the rest will just be baffled. I’m disappointed in Kevin Barnes.”

Even so, the commercial did introduce a lot of people, including me, to of Montreal. I haven’t really followed any sort of music scene since I stopped watching “TRL” religiously around age 13, and I rarely listen to music at all—I can’t concentrate if it’s playing in the background while I do homework, although, for whatever reason, I can always read and write if there’s a TV playing in the room. That means I had never listened to of Montreal until I first caught the Outback spot.

Regardless of people’s opinions about artistry versus commerce, the fact remains that “Wraith Pinned to the Mist,” aka “Outback Tonight,” is by far of Montreal’s most famous song. It’s also a given that musical artists should be prepared to play their most famous songs at any big concert. Would you be happy if you attended a Lady Gaga show and she didn’t sing “Poker Face,” or if you went to see Natalie Imbruglia and she never did “Torn?” Of course you wouldn’t.

But, to the major disappointment of everyone assembled at Bacchanal, Kevin Barnes and his crew didn’t give the people what they wanted. Of Montreal’s set lasted for about an hour, and while it included the requisite crazy costumes (the band’s makeshift back-up dancers, three Columbia students, wore diapers and bras as the band played), the Outback Steakhouse song was nowhere to be heard. In a move that seemed like an intentional “fuck you” to the assembled audience, the band didn’t even play the song during its encore. Instead, of Montreal chose to end the night with an indulgent, 12-minute-long odyssey called “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal.”

Maybe Barnes and company are tired of “Wraith Pinned to the Mist” by now. Maybe they’re just embarrassed about having allowed it to be used in a commercial for a restaurant that has a dessert called “Chocolate Thunder From Down Under” on its menu. Either way, the band’s intentional decision to avoid pleasing its audience irritates me. With a few notable exceptions (Ke$ha, orange juice), things are popular because they’re good. By that logic, “Wraith” is of Montreal’s best song. Outback wouldn’t have been interested in the song in the first place if it wasn’t fun and infectious.
It’s all well and good for artists to try not to be pigeonholed, but purposefully choosing to do something that will let down fans of that artist’s work is obnoxious. Therefore, I demand that of Montreal come back to campus so that the band can perform the one song we all wanted to hear. Perhaps they could also bring us all Bloomin’ Onions as penance. If they don’t, I guess I’ll just have to pretend that the band’s dissatisfying performance didn’t exist.

Hillary Busis is a Columbia College senior majoring in English and history. She is the former managing arts editor of the Eye. And Another Thing runs alternate Thursdays.