At an OK Go show, there’s bound to be gimmicks. They are, after all, a band that built their reputation on well-executed videos – going viral with the help of treadmills and drones. So it’s almost better if you walk into one of their shows cold. The less you’re expecting, the more you’re likely to get out of it. This makes it pretty hard to write a review, given the fact I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who’s yet to experience an OK Go concert.
I guess you’ll just have to consider this your fair warning: don’t read on if you don’t want to know. Just be aware that they’re definitely a band worth seeing live at least one point in your concert-going days.
So on to the spoilers…
Playing to a packed Toronto audience, if you weren’t raising your hand in an attempt to ask the four-piece a hard-hitting question, you were keeping a close eye on the band and probably sending endless Instagrams of the entire production.
Between the (many) blasts of confetti, the crowd-sourced percussion, and the endearing question-and-answer periods that dotted their 19-song set, the Los Angeles-based band did absolutely everything in their power to keep the audience entertained. Damian Kulash (vocals/guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass/vocals), Dan Konopka (drums), and Andy Ross (guitar, keyboards) even went so far as to recreate the dance sequence of their “A Million Ways” video, step-for-step, as a backing track played to their choreographed moves.
As far as music goes, it’s hard to deny the fact that the band writes a catchy tune. That doesn’t stop it from still being pretty secondary to everything that’s going on though. While songs like the darker, cowbell-reliant “Obsession” and the sing-along causing “This Too Shall Pass” did well, it seemed pretty evident that you don’t go to an OK Go show to be wowed by the musicianship (something they proved they had anyway, with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” near the end of the set.)
The band also got the crowd to help out with their actual instrumentation, the audience contributing claps, whistles, and other sounds for the looped percussion of “There’s A Fire” – Kulash prefacing it by explaining: “We have reached what is probably the very nerdiest part of the show.” The audience was happy to oblige, though it took about five times for Toronto to get the stomp right.
Kulash, for his part, doesn’t have a particularly dynamic voice, but it’s one he knows how to use within the OK Go canon, belting out lyrics to “Skyskrapers” from their third album – 2012’s Of the Blue Colour of the Sky.
There’s also a definite commonality running through their material, though it’s evident the band has become much more hi-fi over the years. Their first single – 2002’s “Get Over It” from their self-titled debut – started sparse with vocals and guitar taking the lead. It was boisterous and hooky, but decidedly less complicated than material (like the disco instrumentals of “I Won’t Let You Down”) from 2014’s Hungry Ghosts.
“Here It Goes Again” –from 2006’s Oh No – is still a song that swings for the rafters, to be sure. While the viral video helped push it to the masses, it’s the type of pop song that you can easily lose yourself in because it’s just so damn fun. OK Go was smart to close on it: the audience piling out of the venue in downright jubilation, confetti caught in hair and hoods and blanketing the Phoenix Concert Theatre floor.
With all that said, OK Go is probably the band representation of FOMO. It’s fun if not particularly intellectual (as nerdy as it is.) It’s music that begs you for your Instagram feed and, after seeing them in concert, it’s hard to know how you’ll ever be so entertained again.
