Of Montreal Cover Michael Jackson in NYC

Though they're often compared to David Bowie and Prince, Of Montreal paid homage to the King of Pop on Saturday night at New York City's Terminal 5 -- and it wasn't a mere tease, either. For their encore, a skirt- and eyeliner-wearing Kevin Barnes and band, along with Janelle Monae and her band, piled onstage and performed spot-on covers of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller,' 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'' and 'P.Y.T.'

Each song was played in its entirety and segued from one tune to the next, leaving the crowd somewhat speechless, but mostly delighted that the band wasn't massacring these classics. In fact, Barnes's falsetto takes on Jackson felt honest and, more importantly, unironic, even though just prior to launching into 'Thriller,' there were two people dressed as pigs making out onstage.

Such is an of Montreal show, as Barnes told Spinner earlier. The stage production for 'False Priest' has been in development all summer, and features a slew of costumed dancers parading about on stage: there are the little skull people, the big and tall dragon people, the silver lobster claw people, the white-and-black checkerboard people and the fire-flame people, who like to hold the aforementioned pig people hostage. At one point, Barnes is replaced by a '60s-era television that actually works, on which the audience can watch him play piano somewhere on stage.

As for their own material, Of Montreal mostly drew from their last several albums, playing 'Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?' standouts 'Suffer for Fashion' and 'Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse,' and 'Coquet Coquette" and 'Sex Karma,' two standouts from 'False Priest.' But seeing a "pig" being held hostage by someone dressed up as a flame is a spectacle in and of itself, worthy of any music fan who might think rock's gotten boring.

Of Montreal's 'False Priest' tour continues west through the fall, before wrapping in Atlanta on Nov. 7.