2007 is OK to GO!

Wow, I'm sad that its mid-March and this is my first post in 2007 (and my last post was in OCTOBER!). Either I've been a bad music-lover lately or just no one good has been touring this winter. With SXSW here this week, its going to be torturous to not go to all the shows right down the street from me, but a wristband is worthless and I don't have the connections to get a badge. Ah well, I wish all the great bands in town the best, and hopefully I can run into them at a restaurant or something! And maybe they'll be like OKGo who played SXSW last year and are now selling out Stubbs.

At the last minute today, I acquired a ticket to the OKGo and Snow Patrol show at Stubbs for tonight because a friend got sick. Not that I'm glad she got sick, but it was a great chance for me to hang out with our sorority sister Megan L. and I got to see a good show on a perfect Texas evening.

All I have to say about the first openers, Silversun Pickups, was that I was not impressed. I've seen it before in Jeff's band, Go Nova. Their 30 min set dragged on like it was an hour.

Gary of SP and his cool guitar strap

Although Snow Patrol is techinically headlining this tour, they didn't seem to be why most people came out. However, i must say, they exceeded my expectations... it wasn't the "snow suck ass" show I thought it would be, even though Gary still did his spastic arm moves. Actually in the beginning, we were convinced he was on some serious drugs the way he was acting and doing this head move that made it look like his eyes were rolling back in his head. But eventually his inter-song banter seemed too lucid for him to be as high as we thought - and he was very funny (Coffepot! ARGH! Tuesday! ARGH!). Anyways, this show was much better than the one I saw in April 2005 (see post "1 Austin Band and 2 from the UK"). The light show was enhancing, Gary enjoyed playing in the mouth of a great white shark and having a cup of ice thrown on him, and he brought up a sweet girl from the audience to sing "Set the Fire to the 3rd Bar" with him. I was surprised that I tended to like their "Eyes Open" material better live than I did the songs from "Final Straw". "Hands Open" is still ringing in my ears.


What we couldn't stop saying about OK Go was "they are just so cute!" These not-so-young guys wear suits (some modern business, some funky vintage) yet they have such a boyish charm - its just adorable to watch them play perky rock music. And to me, the lead singer, Damian, has a persona that is a mix of Pelle Almqvist of the Hives with a little Mick Jagger and a dash of Jim, from the tv show The Office. He has the right amount of cockiness and modesty to make him very charismatic. All the guys seem to really enjoy themselves like they know they are so lucky to be where they are. Their energy and creativity is very refreshing.

But we do appreciate their musical talent too! They sound similar to Weezer and the Strokes, plus they have great harmonies. Megan L. couldn't get over the fact that Andy could jump from the keys to the guitar so quickly (but she's never seen my brother do the same thing). The songs that stuck out to me besides their hits were "Television, Television" (their opener) and "Invincible". Here is a video i took of Here it Goes Again because they brought out this guy, Tim, who is the most badass jump-roper ever. Overall, a very energetic and entertaining show that has set the bar for the rest of 2007.