On Pete’s Lollapalooza: I Want You So Bad I Can’t Breathe / OK Go

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Aug 062011
 

I Want You So Bad I Can’t Breathe, OK Go

Yesterday, Jack and I arrived in Chicago after a myriad of travel woes and set off to Grant Park to begin the three-day walking dream that is Lollapalooza. For my first music festival, it was what I expected: hot, hectic, and beyond live music compare. We arrived in the park around 2 and OK Go didn’t go on until 7:15, and while the hours before were filled with audiotastic power, I wanted to post about OK Go because of a. how incredible their live performance is and b. this marked my 5th time seeing the band live and I thought that was cool. The song explodes out of the gates right off the bat with the smacks on the floor tom, and although it immediately drops back into a more relaxed and soothed feel, the energy from those first drum hits remains palpable. Live, the band refuses to not have fun and plays every catchy rift with a look of musical ecstasy, encouraging the audience to dance and sing their hearts out in whatever goofy way they find appropriate. The lyrics are on constant repeat, which enables the crowd to never get lost in the singing and belt out the catchy chorus directly at the band. Unlike many of OK Go’s songs, this one is painstakingly heartfelt and does not call for much celebration, yet the excitement the band emanates allows lines like “So bad I can’t think straight, so bad all my bones shake, so bad  I can’t breathe” to fill the audience with empathetic passion. OK Go drew a fantastic crowd yesterday; everyone there was genuinely excited to see them specifically, which a festival like Lollapalooza does not always entail. Here’s to two more days of fantastic jammin’. (Follow me and Jack at  https://twitter.com/#!/Jack_McManus_ and https://twitter.com/#!/padelfio)

 Festivals, Lollapalooza 2011, Rock  Tagged with:

On Pete’s Turntable: It’s a Disaster / OK Go

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Jul 132011
 

Many, if not all of you, are familiar with OK Go’s uniquely awesome music-video-making abilities. They choreograph some of the coolest dances that are often in no way correlated to the actual words of the song, incorporating goofy additions like treadmills or foster dogs, use some simple filming techniques, and capture the hearts of millions of rock listeners. This song doesn’t have a music video. Sorry. What it does offer is one of the purest pop rock  instrumental amalgamations we have to listen to. Everything about OK Go is really just plain fun, and this headbanger does not fail to disappoint. Right off the bat with the powerful yet simple drumbeat, the listener is kind of forced to bob some part of their body to the beat, feeling a strange sense of new-found physical power and liveliness. Every aspect of the song, from the simple rhythmic bass to the positively explosive chorus that rockets out of nowhere every time, makes you want to run a little faster, jump a little higher, or sing a little louder. I’ve seen OK Go live a few times, and each time they play this song they seem to have to physically themselves from running and jumping off the stage in pure musical glee (although Damian didn’t actually contain himself once. Awesome stage dive dude.) They are fully aware of their own musical morality in the song, keeping in mind that “it’s an incredible mess / but it’s all we got now / yeah it’s all we got.” This song exemplifies every peppy reason to love OK Go and the genre in general.

 Rock  Tagged with:
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