OK GO – Live at the Hi Fi Bar : Gig Reviews

Ever since OK GO first became the product of serious media attention with their brilliantly simple ‘treadmill film clip’, it was fair to say there were a fair few naysayers, criticizing this American group for their ‘gimmicky’ clip and general lack of musical originality. The aforementioned song seemed so bland that many, including myself, were completely happy to never listen to another song of theirs for the rest of eternity. Yet it wasn’t until their new album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky came across my desk that I began to pay attention to these re-imagined Flaming Lips-esque funsters. And when the opportunity arose to witness their highly touted live show, I simply couldn’t resist.

I arrived at Melbourne’s Hi Fi Bar in time to see the last of support act Hungry Kids of Hungary, with their refreshingly straight cover of M.I.A’s Paper Planes. Although it was literally the end of the set, it was enough to capture enough of my interest – and the rest of the packed Hi Fi bars too.

In the midst of stage preparations,  the crowd around the immediate stage area casually joked with the select amount of stage hands nervously pacing back and forth between the stage and sound desk with bits of paper held tight in their hands. Who knows what they were actually doing, but it looked super important.

The lights dimmed, and out came OK GO, with exhuberant frontman Damian Kulash in a slightly altered version of his bands typical stage regalia, opting for a pair of Angus Young inspired shorts with his suit jacket. Apparently they were a late replacement for his split trousers, but I think he just liked the look and feel of the shorts!

OK GO with the infamous 'Light Suits'.

Launching into White Knuckles, we saw the fruit of all the intense pre-show stage work, with all manner of background graphics and confettit cannons adding to the party-feel of the show.Yet, the audience didn’t reach fever pitch until a rousing performance of Get Over It.

I Want You So Bad I Can’t Breathe really showed the progress OK GO have made as decent songwriting goes. Their minor transformation appears to have been modeled on the likes of The Flaming Lips, whilst songs like Back from Kathmandu, and Needing/Getting (which to my disappointment was not played) bite at the heels of Elliot Smith – in case your wondering, this is a good thing! All up they’re now a funky amalgamation of bright power pop and hipster cool that both Franz Ferdinand and Prince would be proud of.

They then proceeded to break up the set with a performance of What To Do on the bells. Apart from coming off as super impressive, the song itself sounded better than the origingal. The benefits of playing a song with the bells is that you get guaranteed comical benefits of having a song resemble a live variety show where no one is too comfortable and anything could go wrong.
Following up with a very poignant Last Leaf from the crowd, the full band came back on for a few songs which included the bright pop-infused This Too Shall Pass, with Kulash managing to pull out the Ben Folds crowd interaction trick. Finishing off with Do What You Want, the walk off so unconvincingly masqueraded their intention to come back on that I highly doubt that anyone left thinking the night had finished.
There were some uneasy and jittery minutes before the encore, but the room blackened for the second, and the lads filed out in unison and lined up with their backs to the room, eventually revealing a combination of scrolling letters and patterns on their backs that came to spell O-K-G-O. (Although this sounds altogether unimpressive, I can assure you that it wasn’t. For further proof, see photo above).
With this new look, matched with new neon-guitars that resembled those fluffy polar bear monsters on the ice planet Hoth, OK GO ploughed through single WTF and the underrated Skyscrapers, before finishing off with steady rocking Invincible.

The show wasn’t quite at the now legendary status of Flaming Lips circus like performances, but it definitely came close. With Kulash hinting they would would be returning late this year, and with the added success of Of The Blue Color Of The Sky, I doubt this will be the last we’ll be hearing of OK GO.

OK GO’s spectacular new album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky is now available.