Sunday 04/02/07 Ok Go @ KOKO, London

Ok Go have sacrificed their Superbowl Sunday activities for our viewing and listening pleasure. Prince and Billy Joel may have been rocking it up in Miami, but we have a more modern brand of pop going on between KOKO's sticky walls. The band's geek chic stylings draw on The Hives and The Beach Boys to make a very friendly brand of pop. Their energetic live show includes flumes of confetti plus numerous visuals projected onto the back wall. The quartet have thought of everything to make the show irreverent and fun.
 
Tambourines sale into the audience, girls caterwaul lead singer Damian Kulash's praises; the band's internet success has given them a great deal of attention in the past year. With 'Here It Goes' famous treadmill dance video making 10 million hits on YouTube, and the additional success of the video to 'A Million Ways', the band have made their way onto cluttered harddrives across the country, and into people's eardrums.
 
As Damian drawls into the mic, a low angle mini-cam shoots up his nose revealing a black and white image projected onto KOKO's back wall. The band are completely active, using the stage so much that they eventually run out, and spill over into the audience. Lilts of early Dandy Warhols pop spill into their performance, with poptastic being the name of the game. The first album's biggest hit, the punchy ‘Get Over’ is played with a slower, rotund beat.
 
"This is like a rock show combined with a camp out," muses Damian, apparently due to the fact that it's Sunday night. So as a result, the boys relocate to one of KOKO's boxes to play a well-thought out version of ‘To Be Cool.’ The band only go back to the stage to play ‘Invincible’ and a cover of Electric Light Orchestra's 'Don't Bring me Down'. Damian Kulash's unfettered screams are reminiscent of early '50s gigs with a bouncy beat. He climbs the side of the stage to the audience’s delight. 'Here It Goes' brings the expected excitement and is the last track before we all go through the motions of an encore.
 
Encore time, and an almost soft-rock number precedes loads of massive inflatable hands blowing up the back of the stage for the new single, 'Do what You Want'. Damian assures us that the accompanying video "will break your minds off". As a deliciously irreverent finale, Ok Go apologise for having no treadmills. However they do have a projection of their backyard and excellent co-ordination. With complete seriousness, the boys delight with their rigid dance for 'A Million Ways'. Ok Go take the music industry seriously by not taking themselves seriously.