A recent Tuesday-night junket into Chinatown was supposed to yield pages and pages of notes and quotes about how excited hipster so-and-so was to see of Montreal play Honolulu while the Athens, Ga.-based pop group is still at the top of its game. (It's no secret that many of the live acts that make it out to our isolated rock are — how to put this delicately? — no longer in their prime.)

The excursion yielded no such thing.

We were right about people being excited about the show, but we overestimated of Montreal's Honolulu following because if there is one, we didn't encounter it.

What we did find were people who are planning on going to the show because they know a good event when they hear about it.

"Oh yeah, I'm totally going," said Ginny Williams, 23, who doesn't call herself a fan of the group, but said she's certainly open to becoming one should this show really make an impression on her. "I wouldn't miss it. They're a big deal, and I hear they're really great live."

But by "great," does she mean U2 great? Or more like Grateful Dead great?

Actually, she doesn't know, either.

So we left Chi-town with the distinct feeling that people are definitely psyched about the show. They just don't know what to expect when they get there.

That's where we come in.

We'll try and give concertgoers some sense of what it's like to be downstage from one of the most outrageous bands on the circuit today.

SOME BACKGROUND

A quick primer to of Montreal:

• of Montreal is affiliated with the Elephant 6 collective of musicians that also includes The Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel and Elf Power.

• Elephant 6 bands, including of Montreal, are heavily influenced by 1970s psychedelic pop.

• The band was created by Kevin Barnes and named after a failed romance with a woman from Montreal. That's one of the stories, at least. Barnes has been known to change his story depending on who he's talking to.

• It's "of Montreal" with a lower-case "o."

• The band has released nine studio albums since 1997.

• The band is known for sounding wildly different from album to album.

• Frontman Barnes has been very open about his struggles with depression and anxiety, which are often the inspiration for his songs.

• Barnes sometimes writes songs, records and performs as his alter ego Georgie Fruit, a black shemale. In an Oct. 16, 2008, issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Barnes had this to say about Georgie Fruit: "He's an African-American man who was in an R&B band called Arousal in the '70s. They didn't go very far, and he ended up in prison, where he had a lot of weird experiences and decided to be a woman. So he had a sex change. He's very free — I think of him as a genderless superhuman, untouched by taboos or the boring parts of our culture."

• Barnes is also known for his wordsmithery. Consider this passage from the song "Past is a Grotesque Animal":

Somehow you've red-rovered the Gestapo circling my heart

And nothing can defeat you

Through the plate glass of maturing cells

STAGE PRESENCE

Of Montreal is as well known for its on-stage antics as it is for its music.

• The band often acts out short skits during their concerts.

• Concerts often include multiple costume changes (as many as 40 per concert), props and audience interactions (that are more like confrontations).

• Barnes has been known to make his stage entrance riding a horse. (But don't expect livestock at Loft.)

• Barnes has also been known to perform naked. Seriously.

• The band (and its fans) wear brightly colored clothes and big frizzy hairdos (think "The Wiggles" for adults) inspired by the '60s and '70s. The women wear neckties and the men wear eye makeup. And lots of it.

• of Montreal often performs random cover songs during their concerts, so even if you don't know any of their own songs, you still might be able to sing along.

• For its last big tour, of Montreal traveled with a troupe of theater performers who helped stage the band's elaborate shows.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

Barnes on of Montreal:

• "I am definitely not well-adjusted." (Synthesis magazine)

• "There's always a lot of unconventional stuff going on (in our shows). It's kind of hard to describe. We perform a whole bunch of skits between songs. We pantomime to prerecorded music just for fun, just to make people laugh. ... Most people familiar with our music know we have an unconventional sense of humor and expect to see it." (www.Lazy-i.com)

• "Music can be very visual, and that's what we try to do with our music, is to make it very cinematic." (NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday")

• "The music that we're making means a lot to us also. It's not about making money or having a certain kind of image. It's just all about expression." (NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday")