I've seen some shows over the years that were so completely "out there" that I probably spent most of the show staring at what was unfolding on stage and I couldn't tell you after the show whether the band was good or bad. These shows come immediately to mind and include Butthole Surfers at Hammerjacks in 1991, Marilyn Manson at the 9:30 Club in 1994 and now Yamantaka // Sonic Titan's performance at the M is for Montreal CMJ show will be added to the list.  These guys are pretty far out there, both musically and visually, so I don't know how to describe them - the best that I can come up with is "noh wave" Suicide channeled through Bjork.

Here is how Wikipedia describes the band: "The group was originally conceived while [vocalists] Kato Attwood and Alaska B were art students at Concordia University, as an art project based around exploring and subverting the cultural signifiers of their shared Asian Canadian heritage; both are of mixed Asian-European heritage, and were previously members of the defunct Montreal noise rock band Lesbian Fight Club. They developed a music and performance style that incorporated aspects of Asian C-pop and J-pop, progressive rock, heavy metal and industrial music, as well as Buddhist philosophy, anime and manga, Chinese opera and Kabuki and Nôh theatre."

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan's sophomore disc, UZU, which roughly translates as "spirals" or "swirls" in Japanese, came out October 29 on Suicide Squeeze/Paper Bag.



This video isn't from the show at Arlene's but was filmed at a CMJ show earlier the same day:


Links:
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan