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It’s the fourth of July in St. Louis. It’s three and a half hours into a sold-out raucous spectacle in a basement art gallery on the south side. Sweat drips onto my neck and shoulders, sweat I’m pretty sure isn’t even mine. Strips and strands of red, white and blue confetti cling to my arms and stick in my hair. I’m watching an Asian man wearing a scoop-necked, skin-tight, teal spandex body suit and a garish belt, standing on stage alone, up on a box. He’s playing “America the Beautiful” on his violin, while every single member of the crowd sings along at the top of their lungs, hands raised revival-style.

And I am proud to be an American.

Last night’s Of Montreal show was the least-anticipated event of the summer, largely because everyone, even those of us who purchased tickets, didn’t expect it to actually happen. When The Luminary announced the show on Twitter, the overwhelming reaction was disbelief. The Athens, Georgia indie outfit sold out The Pageant last October, with Janelle Effing Monae opening for them. Why on Earth would they want to come to The Luminary (no offense, you guys are awesome)? But July 4th came, and we assembled in front of the converted convent to see a real tour bus parked out front. Okay, they showed up, cool. I assumed they’d play 5 songs and split, like Cold Cave did last month. But then the stage folk started taping down set lists and I got a load of this:

ALRIGHTY THEN. Let’s do this shit.

The stage was stuffed. Two drumkits. Several keyboards and synthesizers. Guitars. A violin. And they managed to squeeze in 8 musicians and a parade of costumed performance artists, plus Kevin Barnes changed outfits 3 times (my favorite outfit, the 70’s synthetic pleated blouse and fuchsia miniskirt with the applique flamingo and red tights. I hope he knitted his OM cap himself. Sufjan would have). The musicians all wore some combination of red, white, and/or blue.

Throughout the course of the evening, center stage featured people wearing: giant fake boobs, pig masks, Mexican wrestler masks, Spiderman masks, full length flannel union suits printed with duckies and surfers, tinfoil fairy wings, and mostly nothing. It got full Cirque de Soleil up in there, and the audience *loved* it.

There’s much to be said about venues who don’t serve hard liquor. I saw more people drinking coffee than beer. The crowd was ecstatic and engaged, but nobody was sloppy drunk or scary. There was only one brief period of pushing, and it was quickly squashed by a fabulous scrap of a girl who said, “No, you can’t come up here, that’s why you get to shows early!”

K Ishibashi, the violinst for Of Montreal, and solo artist/ first opener Kishi Bashi, did such a fantastic job rapping and beatboxing for the song “Just the Tip.” Totally an original song, turns out. I was thinking of something else and Ryan Wasoba’s “Lonely Island-esque” comment made my brain fill in a false blank. Here’s video of it from the Buckhead Roxy in Atlanta. covering Lonely Island’s “Just the Tip” while Barnes changed outfits, I believed it to be an original piece, even though I’ve totally seen the video on youtube. Come back to St. Louis, K! You were amazeballs, and I NEVER SAY AMAZEBALLS. Video: Watch him perform “Manchester” as Kishi Bashi.

For whatever reason (perhaps it was 2nd opener Yip Deceiver’s thorough molesting of all the cute boys up front), Kevin Barnes was surprisingly skimpy with the crowd affection. The closest thing to a makeout during the main act was brief eye-intercourse between KB and a cute boy in front of him, and then drummer Clayton Rychlik’s crooning of “My Funny Valentine” while gazing earnestly into the face of a girl stage right. Then again, a mostly-naked performance art dude did squeeze the juice of an entire grapefruit onto his face and chest, so there was that. Extra points to his female counterpart, who sexily peeled the sticker off her apple and stuck it to her forehead.

After the encore and “America the Beautiful,” K Ishibashi played “Turkey in the Straw” while the performance artists and guitarist Brian Poole paraded through the audience with a long strand of linked balloons. When Of Montreal finally called it quits, we were all utterly wrecked.

Walking to the exit, I got six high fives from total strangers, four sweaty hugs from friends, and ever so many looks that spoke exactly what I was feeling: We just shared something very few people will ever know. It took every ounce of my adulthood not to park it on the lawn in front of The Luminary and camp out with everyone who was reliving the show a la Patrick Star from Spongebob Squarepants. Remember that time (10 minutes ago) when Kevin Barnes made us all his bitches? Yeah. That was great.

VIDEO: A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger, the last song before the encore.

See Ryan Wasoba’s review for the RFT for the actual set list with full titles and more pictures. Totally agree with Ryan, the songs from Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer were, and are, the best.