Photos By: Brandon Marks
By: David Israel
Walk Off The Earth’s live show is an experience. For a band known for their covers and videos, they face a challenge of delivering a live show worthy of the accolades the videos have earned. Expectations were high when an interpreter for the noticeably large contingent of hearing-impaired audience members took his position on the side of the stage; it felt like a signal the concert would be visually stunning.
But, rather than a show in the style of OK Go! or Arcade Fire, the visual aspects of the show felt gimmicky, and over-choreographed. But, even in the face of my cynical standards, the show was nothing but a lot of fun. The band sounded good, playing both songs off the forthcoming album Sing It All Away, using the opening lines of the chorus to encourage audience participation as a sing-along between songs.
Through it all, the band put on a high energy show, captivating the sparse audience that came out for the mid-week show. The crowd was participatory, enthusiastic, and the majority of the audience seemed to know the lyrics to every song they’d heard before. The music was consistently (and almost annoyingly) upbeat, working consistent beats even in to covers such as Madonna’s “Material Girl.” Extra credit goes to one of the band’s leads, Sarah Blackwood, who performed the entire show while pregnant.
The band played for about an hour before sojourning to the side stage before returning for their encore, when they performed their first radio original, “Red Hands,” as well as a medley starting and ending with Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know,” with all five members playing a single guitar simultaneously, mimicking their viral video. The night ended with a balloon drop and farewells from the band, ending their pre-album tour.