There's nights when it's just worth hiking yourself off the couch no matter what kind of disturbing weekend you had. Usually the nights that are most worth it are the ones you honestly don't expect to be. Case in point : June 5th. First of all, it's June and that's amazing. What happened to springtime? Secondly, I have to reinforce the importance of checking out opening bands. In the interest of catapulting into mass public consciousness by way of clinging to the coattails of 'the next (or already) big thing' they happen to be opening for, support bands will often have really amusing little qualities to help them stick in the minds of the crowd at their feet who are mostly just the eager ones claiming a spot for their headlining darlings.

(Now the trick is for these openers to maintain this quality as they climb the rock n roll ladder to their own big headlining tours. It's so often we see bands who really put in a big raging effort, like The Strokes, suddenly fall into this scraping-by-on-built-up-reputation sort of thing. I don't know what it is really - if they actually do get boring and just coast along with minimal effort, or if simply that what was 'cutting edge' when they began loses its edge because suddenly everyone else is copying them, oftentimes with a more engaging result because they‘ve learned from the mistakes of all the bands before them. Anyhow, I digress... )

OKGO's been about for a while. They've been to Vancouver before, but I unfortunately didn't see them. My experience with them was basically one song, and what an amazing song that one is. It's called "Get Over It," and you've probably heard it before. Now the thing is, that's the first tune from them I ever heard. Some people I know went to that earlier show OKGO played in Vancouver, and one of them came away with this little EP, which I later listened to. And I just thought, oh this isn't what I expected. From that edgy, modern-sounding, rambunctious rock song, the other songs (granted, only two of them) were somehow lack-lustre. If I hadn't been waiting to be rocked off, I might have had a different opinion of them. I mean, not bad songs by any means, but just lacking that X-factor. They sounded like they needed a good spit-polish or something.

Ergo, I came to this show early, on the off-chance I'd be shooting, mostly out of curiosity and cuz-I-can-itude. Honestly, the first thing I took note of walking into the Commodore was the carnival atmosphere surrounding the merch booth. Yes, some of this was the fault of the fine folks at AMP Merchandise, who just darn well know how to set up an attractive merch booth. But plunked on one side of the table (that was schilling such wares as proper pins, ties, cuffs, and bottle openers) was one of those coin-op prize machines. You know, those ones that sit in a big, shiny, red row at the end of the checkout at the grocery store, the ones you always stuck your greasy little fingers and noses on with glee as a child as you peeked inside to try and will out one particular prize. The ones you'd bug your poor mother for a quarter for as she struggled with 83 shopping bags until she relented just to get you to shut up. I'm not certain what was in those little plastic bubbles inside the machine, but what a fun idea for a merch booth.

OKGO began just about the second I walked into the room. It's the sort of show that needs to be experienced up front. So that's where I went. The stagefront crowd was pretty sparse at this time, but then again, the whole room was pretty sparse. This show was supposed to be at the Red Room, which is far less than half the size of the Commodore. "Overwhelming demand" at the Red Room is "Empty Room" at the Commodore, but the building filled up by the end of the night, so I imagine there were a lot of tickets sold at the door from bored Sunday-nighters who wanted one last stab at the weekend. However, early on, the people who were up front really seemed in tune with OKGO. Exuberant, flaunty dancing people with swishing beers jived away on the floor and sang loudly to the songs. Standing on the stage right in front of me and frequently being in the way of the action was a videographer. Being in the photography thing myself, I know it's often unavoidable to get in the way of the surrounding audience while you're working, and someone who's officially hired by the band to do something like this tends to be in the way even more. So fair enough, but it was awfully distracting. By the end of the set though, I was happy he was there because all I can think of is that sometime soon there will be a music video or a biographical DVD that will incorporate moments of this show, and that is something I can't wait to get my hands on.

Intrigued yet?

The band played some songs. A lot of them were new. They were fun and jivey for sure, very gently-mod with a few raking screams thrown in just to rock it up a bit. But it was very much like I expected I'd feel - sure they look good up there, but the songs just need some sort of oomph to them. The guys were outfitted beautifully - at least the standees. Drummer looked a bit less stylish head-to-toe but hey he requires functionality and you can't see half of him anyhow. The top was slick, that's all that matters. Yeah, tight tapered pants, pinstripes, mint green suit jackets, red suit jackets, high-buttoned suit jackets, tucked-in ties, layered collared candy-coloured-striped shirts, white boots, brown boots, black boots, hats... half the band appeared to have time-warped out of an Ed Sullivan Show, and the other half could have fit into Brian Setzer's orchestra, or perhaps alongside Conan O'Brien's house band. Eventually, they played "Get Over It" which brought oodles of people out from all the dark corners of the room to whoop along. At some point during an energetic and sudden yelp after some silence, singer Damian Kulash glorped a wad of drool out of his mouth all over himself. I don’t even entirely understand how that could happen on its own. I think it was a ploy... Considering both what was to come, and the quirks of the band anyhow, that wouldn’t be surprising. Song titles like “You’re So Damn Hot” and “It's Tough to Have a Crush When the Boy Doesn't Feel the Same Way You Do” prove off the bat that they don’t mind being peculiar on all sides of their music.

They announced their last song, played it, and then everyone put their instruments down. While the rest of the band scurried about behind him swiftly shoving gear off to the sides and rolling up the carpet that had kept the drums in one spot, Kulash plucked up a microphone and walked back and forth across the stage. He explained to us that while the last song might have been the last song we'd heard them play live instruments to, it's not the last song we'd hear from them entirely. He went on to say that there's a song he wanted us all to hear, that was on the little 3-song EP they were selling for a mere $2 (what a great way to hook new fans on tour - selling a small 'exclusive' EP for an extremely reasonable sum). It's a song they're really proud of. And then he started talking about salt. He said that the food tasting industry (which yes, does exist apparently) informs the public that 'salty' is not actually a taste. Salt as such has no flavour, but rather, it's a flavour enhancer. As an example, he stated, "so, if you like the taste of something a lot, and you put salt on it, you're gonna like it a fuckuvalot. So consider this like salt - what we are about to do is an enhancer. So if you hated our set, you're gonna really hate this." And then he put the microphone down and joined the square-shaped formation of band members that had silently developed behind him.

Over the house system, the song cranked on. Oh man. I could have died, what transpired next was so much fun. They did a full-on dance routine. It was perfect. It was somewhere between well-choreographed modern dance, synchronized swimming, the backup singers in a doo-wop band, and a high school cheerleading squad. It was so gloriously ridiculous. I mean, think Napoleon Dynamite, but times four. And they all interact a lot. Or, remember back to grade school gym classes where you'd have to break off into teams and make an aerobics dance routine, but there's always some primadonna in the group who's been in ballet or tap or something since he/she could walk and he/she takes over the choreography and puts together this routine that the rest of the clumsy, two-left-footed team can barely keep up with, so everything looks so deliberate and everyone has this face of intense concentration on instead of being relaxed and really having fun...

Well they were having fun... I think I saw guitarist Andy Duncan crack up a couple times, and bassist Tim Norwind, who was doing the lip synching to the lead vocal track was pretty expressive. But Kulash for sure looked like he had two simultaneous thought strings going on fiercely in his head : "don't screw up don't screw up don't screw up don't screw up" and "one-two-three-four-one-two-three-four...." As far as I can tell, they didn't screw up. Everything from perfectly-synced arm waves to 'flowing' arm waves, intricate swirly overhand twirls, 'artistic' fight scenes and that old trust-your-partner thing where you fall blindly backwards and hope to god someone catches you before you bean yourself on the floor... It was amazing. The audience was in stitches. I can't believe they kept something like that up for a full song without just losing it entirely. It made the hugest impression on the audience - the cheers continued for long afterwards, and certainly, every last copy of that EP they'd brought along was sold out before the Kaiser Chiefs even began.

But there was one more band to go before the main course.

The Caesars were up next. By the time they hit the stage , we’d been subject to a pretty long changeover, and I think everyone was restless because they’d just seen something that it would be hard to beat. OKGO really stole the show with their antics. The Caesars began their set with an overdone, creepy, artsy intro. Dark violet-blue lights and strange soundtracks and noises pumped through the speakers before the band slinked onstage to begin their songs. Maybe people didn’t notice them quietly coming out to the stage or something, but there was alarmingly small fanfare for them. Usually even if a stagehand walks across the stage, the audience starts to scream. Here, there were just a few scattered claps. They did, however have a lovely disco-ball effect going on. It was hidden behind the drum kit, so you couldn’t really see the ball itself, but it was placed below a flat white screen, and the reflections spun off the thing created this gorgeous firefly effect on the white backdrop. In fact, most of their interest stemmed from their light-related visuals. They had video projected on the screen - strange images of cartoon deer being stomped by giant lizard feet, swirling tunnels, and creepy light-up eyes. There was even a guitar on stage that had lights I think actually embedded into the body of the guitar itself.

I’m probably just remembering them wrong, or putting to much thought into the leather jackets, but I remember them being more over-the-top uppity and veering towards oi-punk last time I saw them. Either they matured, or again, just alongside the act before them, they lost that sparkle. I think the Caesars may need to be a band you have to see first on the set in order to be impressed by them, because they can get outshone too easily. At this moment in time, I think the only thing they really have going for them (which, based on the power of advertising, is really probably the only thing they need anyhow) is the fame they’ve garnered by way of being featured in one of those flashy I-Pod commercials with all the neon colours and crazy dancing silhouettes. Even the posters out front of the show advertised the song title larger than the band’s name. You know, so people walking by would be like “Hey check it out, that song that’s on the I-Pod commercial is going to be played here tonight!“ It’s instant stardom for any band that appears on those commercials or on an episode of the O.C. But when the Caesars sprang into that very tune, “Jerk It Out,” the audience went mad and turned the dance floor into their own version of the crazy dancing silhouettes.

That was about it for them. After the Caesars were done thanking everyone, we were subject to another lengthy changeover, as the stagefront sort of emptied out so people could go get beers or snag a treat from the OKGO vending machine or whatever. And then up crashes a small older lady, plants her large bosom directly on top of my hand and squooshes up beside me, leaning over to… reach the curtain that was drawn in front of the stage? Weird phenomenon. I don’t know why she thought either she could pass right through me, or why she thought I was going to suddenly whack her out of the way… maybe she was just trying to shove me towards the middle more. But she sort of was the breaking point for the audience. Shortly thereafter, I realized just how many people had materialized densely behind me. This show was supposed to be at a far smaller venue, and I can see why they changed it. I barely even knew the Kaiser Chiefs, so this seemed surprising. But I tend to never have my finger on the pulse of the uber-cool rock radio bands, so what do I know, right?

The fact that the curtains were drawn during the stage changeover seemed to imply that something enormous was going to happen, but when they drew the curtains back, the only things that had changed were the addition of a drum riser and a heap of fancy pedals. While the crews finished their set-up, the audience joined in a spirited singalong to the Dandy Warhols over the sound system. “And I feel wahooo….WOOO!” Finally the room was plunged into darkness, shouts went up from the audience, and the band members came out onto the stage…. Sweeping. They all had brooms and were somewhat awkwardly sweeping their way across the stage with curious smiles. Did I miss something? Probably, and someone reading this is going to be like, “Andy, you’re a loser…” but I don’t understand what the brooms have to do with anything. Part of me thinks there was something in prank-or-bet land going on, just based on the goofy grins the band members exchanged, but who knows.

So the set began, and I have to say the band was fun, if a bit homogenous in sound. They had loads of energy and a slick British fashion sense. A tambourine has never been played with such vigor! They kept yelling about how much you all need to give the fookin' Kaiser Chiefs a hand. Leaps and yells and claps… all the good fun rock stuff was here. Even the mighty cowbell made an appearance! The crowd clapped along when prompted. Said crowd at this point was an interesting mix of nerdy indie kids and gigantic frat guys. What was with the big meaty drunken hooligans? It was very strange to see these guys who I’d more expect to see beating their head against a wall at a Metallica show, standing in front of this band and beating their head against thin air. But hey, good for them.

The Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson commandeered the madness by leaping into the audience later in the set, and then thanking the crowd for catching him afterwards. He also chucked his microphone into the crowd to let an audience member have a go at singing. Disastrous but heartfelt result. The song highlight was definitely “Modern Way.” Great tune, well done. They did a great job up there, which sounds so patronizing, but it really was bright and fun and loud and technically sound. The band was engaging and personable. Basically, they did everything right. But…

But…

But…

The fucking OKGO set was unparalleled. It was just so perfectly brilliant and full of surprises. Nothing can top that. Check out OKGO. I don’t care if you hate their music. Just go watch them. They wouldn’t let people forget them either as they all stood at various points on the way to the coat check and exit to bombard people with their mailing list sheets. Folks were all over it, brush with fame, bla bla. They’re go-getters.

(the first eight sets of live photos above are only of the Caesars and the Kaiser Chiefs. There was no photo clearance for OKGO unfortunately, but the photo I've included just before the last paragraph pretty much sums up what the dance was all about... however, if you want to see the actual dance, filmed in some yard, check here!! Hilarity. )

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