Of Montreal Give Rothbury a Dose of Glam With Electro-Pop Dance Party

Shortly after the sun went down, Of Montreal set off an electro-pop dance party at Rothbury. With many in the crowd decked out like it was a mid-Nineties rave (glow sticks and neon necklaces abounded) Kevin Barnes and Co. worked through a shimmering "Faberge Falls For Shuggie" and a the loose disco-funk of "Suffer for Fashion." The band seemed to take the latter song literally, dressing like castoffs from a 1980s discotheque. Barnes, for one, sported a bright orange scarf, blue boots, white jeans and a matching headband. And while some of the frontman's lyrics bordered on bizarre ("Be careful how you touch me/My body is an earthquake," he howled at one point), the performance dove head-on into Fellini-esque surrealism, with masked characters stalking the frontman as he worked the stage.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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