Of Montreal and Janelle Monáe Join Forces

The first leg of the trek kicks off with two gigs Sept. 13-14 at 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., and concludes Sept. 26 at Cannery Ballroom in Nashville.

Of Montreal and Monáe then team up the following month, starting things off Oct. 21 at The Pageant in St. Louis with dates booked through a Nov. 5 show at The Lyric Oxford in Oxford, Miss.

Additional dates include House of Blues Boston Presented By Foxwoods Resort Casino (Sept. 16), Terminal 5 in New York (Sept. 17-18), First Avenue in Minneapolis (Sept. 23), Ogden Theatre in Denver (Oct. 24) and Paramount Theatre in Seattle (Oct. 27).

Barnes told Pitchfork the tour will meld the two artists’ performances together seamlessly.

“We’re going to marry the two shows together, in a way. It doesn’t feel like you go see a band, and there’s a pause, and there’s another pause, and then it’s over. We want to control the environment from right when the doors open, and have performance art and video performances and so many different levels of artistic stimulation that would go on throughout the whole night, so there’s never a moment where there’s house music or boring lighting. We want to transform the venues each night, so it becomes this exceptional experience for everyone.”

Look out for appearances from singer Kevin Barnes’ “transsexual alter ego” Georgie Fruit and Monáe’s Cindi Mayweather, a leader of an android community in the future city of Metropolis.

Before the tour begins Of Montreal will play the Land Of NOD Experiment festival in Jackson, Mich., followed by a few U.S. and Canadian headlining dates. In the middle of the co-headlining tour the Athens, Ga.-based band will tour Europe, playing the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Belgium.

Monáe will squeeze in a few festival gigs of her own including Les Ardentes Festival in Belgium (July 9), All Shook Down Festival in San Francisco (July 25), Lilith in Charlotte, N.C. (Aug. 6), Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco (Aug. 15) and Voodoo Experience in New Orleans (Oct. 29).

Barnes is featured on Monáe’s debut studio album, The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) and Monáe makes an appearance on Of Montreal’s upcoming album, False Priest.