A few days ago, I read this review of a concert by the band Of Montreal in my morning newspaper. And I just had to share.
I don’t know the music. I fossicked about on YouTube and couldn’t find a good quality clip of a live show to share here, so I can’t even tell you if I would have the same experience of a concert as the reviewer. And it doesn’t matter. I am so taken by the giddiness and sheer geeky love of this review, especially coming as it does from Travis Nichols, an arts reviewer who always brings context and wide perspective and objectivity to his work. And enthusiasm — that’s one of the things I enjoy about his reviews, I always know when he likes something. But I’ve never seen him wiggle like this:
….they are at times so irritatingly goofy you just want to say no on principle.
But don’t be that way. Say yes.
Enjoy the glitter, the face paint, the pastel shorts, the tiger costumes, the dancing golden Buddhas, the confetti, the light show and the weird spectacle of frontman Kevin Barnes nearly naked, covered in shaving cream, doing some kind of New Wave strut on the Showbox SoDo stage. Say yes to songs like “Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse” and “Disconnect the Dots” and “Id Engager,” songs that are such a muddle of riffs and disco stomps that the only sensible thing to do is shout along to a chorus like “C’mon chemicals! C’mon chemicaaaaals!” until you’re hoarse.
— from Travis Nichols’ review of Of Montreal, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 20 Nov. 2008
It just gets better from there.
And it doesn’t matter if you like this particular music. Just that you like something enough to give yourself up to it sometimes. We should all have some stuff that makes us wiggle in joy, that makes us say yes.
Go read the review. Enjoy. I hope you get some yes in your day.