Ice Cream Man likes you!
Prerequisite: You HAVE to watch this video. (QT, WIN, Real)…be patient
So I never heard the first OK GO album. Then about the same time a couple months ago I found the video above and my friend Greg gave me an advance of the new album, OH NO. Instantly I was impressed. Catchy, rockin’, pop sounds pounded out with an urgency meant to get people on their feet.
Friday Night at the ROXY, OK GO shared the stage with label mate’s The Red Walls.
As we walked in it seemed like we were in rock and roll heaven, or maybe just a flashback. The club was filled with young fans bopping around and Red Walls was ripping through their highly Beatles influenced set. It could have been 30+ years earlier and I don’t think things would have been much different than they were that night. Red Walls got a good thing going, at least live.
I was in charge of shooting pics that night so the whole time I was canvassing the club trying to get the best vantage point. The young girls had already permanently planted themselves at the foot of the stage and even though I was shooting, I still needed room to shake it once OK GO got things going. They kicked things off with “Invincible” (wm real), the lead track off OH NO.
Once the sound was dialed it was all systems GO (ha, but not that funny). They stuck to mostly new tracks through the beginning of the set. Since I’ve only heard the first album a couple times, it was one of those rare occasions where I was rooting for new songs instead of the classics. You might be thinking..hmmm, they only have one other album out, exactly what are “the classics”? “There’s a Fire” off their self titled debut is definitely one of them and as they started up, Greg joined the clan of young excited fans. Another, dare I say classic, is “You’re so Damn Hot”. It was so great being behind the stage a bit to see all the girls singing along to every word out of Damian Kulash’s mouth.
About midway through the set they broke into a cover of the Violent Femmes, “Prove My Love” (ed. check back in a few weeks for a cool VM review). Damian snuck backstage then went around the back or the audience and jumped on the wall separating the fans for the industry folks. As the chorus came along he screamed, micless, at the top of his lungs, “What do I have to do..to PROVE MY LOVE to you”.
One of the coolest songs on the new record is “Oh Lately It’s So Quiet” (snippet wm real). It’s a funky,falsetto, down-tempo track so I wasn’t sure if they would rock it live. Yee haw, now I’ve joined the clan of sing along fans as a snake across the floor in my dancing shoes trying to sing along in my broken voice. It was honestly nearly a perfect set. I say nearly because there was one thing I really wanted to see and I knew the chances were slim. As the band came out for their encore, something was different. They had no instruments and a large area was cleared on the stage. Holy Sh*t, they’re gonna do it.
After a few words of thanks and a declaration of “we know a lot of people out there paid good money for this show and we want to give you your money’s worth” the speakers started bumping and blaring “A Million Ways” and sure enough they all got into position. What a site to see. Four grown men finishing a kick-ass set with an amazing dance number. The crowd was going crazy and everyone was smiling, laughing, and cheering at the same time. Thankfully I had another small memory card for the camera Chris let me borrow and I dropped it in and snapped a few shots.
It was over and all Greg and I could say to each other was, “what a great show”.
