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Photo: Veronika Moore
As January sees the near endless roll out of new artists many are predicting to be big over the coming months, it becomes far too easy to forget about those who have found themselves on such lists in previous years. While some have soared, others have dropped completely off the radar and crash landed into stark reality with a heavy bang- OK Go have found themselves positioned somewhere between these two; neither being too big to be considered a household name nor left field enough to be considered a cult artist.
Tonight on a cold snowless evening and within the confines of a seaside Victorian building these four suited and booted Chicago dwellers put some sparkle back into the lives of those who have been recently beaten by unexpected arctic-like weather.
OK GO are a band who put the emphasis on entertaining, while some others take a laizez-faire approach of going through the same tired motions night after night, this feels like a actual performance that has been delicately planned with the focus purely on creating a vibrant fun filled party atmosphere.
It’s with the arrival of third song ‘White Knuckles’ which sees the bar raised an extra notch as unexpectedly a cannon shoots out waves of paper confetti out over the stage, temporarily hanging in the air before swirling its way round the band and eventually towards the ground while the between song banter has obviously been crafted, slightly tweaked for each performance but travels over as being endearing yet ultimately slightly corny.
Yet for all there well rehearsed showmanship the show would literally fall part if it was not for the case of this band having a stream of ear pleasing songs to bind it all together. It would be easy to label them as being a one trick one hit pony as OK Go will be known to many purely for the treadmill featuring Youtube staple ‘Here it goes again’ a music video that has achieved over 49 million views but as the set proceeds it becomes glaringly obvious that it would be foolish to do.
As OK Go are a band that has a habit of writing pop with a sharp edge; for the most part they marry fun filled up-tempo Weezer-alite geek rock to a T-rex glam rock strut but it is not a mould they are afraid to break out and tonight sees them break out into a bewitching hand-bell version of ‘What To do’.
Though they have fashioned themselves a reputation for being unorthodox, OK Go remain a charming band that little would hold a stop sign too.
The show in photos:
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