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CFE Arena came out for fun, period (review)
ORLANDO — Most nights aren’t usually this bright. Most nights aren’t usually this loud. Most nights aren’t usually this interesting. Most nights usually don’t involve Fun..
A name that certainly fits the trio; Nate Ruess – vocals, Jack Antonoff – guitar, and Andrew Dost – multi-instrumentalist, are everything but boring and proved that Thursday night, during their electrifying 90-minute set at the CFE Arena.
On the tail end of their headlining “Most Night Summer Tour”, Fun. showed no hint of fatigue that would give any viewer the impression that they have been touring since early January of last year, following the release of their album.
From the little boy watching the show sitting on his father’s neck — to the college kids pre gaming before they go downtown — to the nice older couple who could not stop dancing in their seats, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.
”You wanna be louder than Boca Raton, don’t you?,” screamed frontman Ruess as he waved the microphone stand high in the air. Up for the challenge, the nearly sold-out venue conquered Ruess challenge, leaving him wondering “Boca Raton who”.
Fun.’s pop meets Grease meets rock blend – provides the perfect night for sing-alongs – making it nearly impossible not to be loud. Whether you were right in front of the stage or high up in the stands — the performance involved everyone — involving a cannon full of paper confetti, which rained over the entire stage floor.
While Ruess controls most of the vocal duties, bandmates Antonoff and Dost make sure their work and contribution to the band is not overlooked — in an attempt to “raise the dead” Antonoff showed off his shredding skills as he lead the crowd in “Rock and Roll” getting everyone to scream “Hey”.
A performance for the big stage — besides an overhead projector which displayed the band playing live behind the colorful light show — Fun. focused on winning the crowd over with their performance skills and not special effects, as members of the audience danced with complete strangers to popular song “We Are Young” — nodding their heads from side-to-side in unison during songs “Carry On” and “Baralights”, which Ruess dedicated to the crowd.
From their set opening of a cabaret version of “Some Nights” decked out in matching tuxedos, all the way to their final song Fun. kept their promise of making Thursday night, the best weekday ever. Following their performance — I almost can’t stand how awesome these guys are.
Canadian twin-sister duo Tegan and Sara opened the show, and performed for just under an hour. The duo let it be known early, that no matter how poorly the crowd would respond to them they were going to rock out and have a good time since it was their birthday. The crowd caught on to their 80’s pop music early and seemed interested in everything they had to say — even when they stopped singing and told stories including their run in with a monkey backstage.
By OBK
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CFE Arena set for Fun. (preview)
Courtesy By OBK
Who better to perform in the same city as “The Happiest Place On Earth” than up-and-coming group Fun..
Best known for their Grammy award winning single, “We are young” featuring Janelle Monae, the trio out of New York – has been touring North America since early July – and bring their “Most Nights Sunmer Tour” to the CFE Arena on Thursday, Sept. 19.
Fun. formed in 2008 following lead singer Nate Russ departure of The Format – due to group disbandment – leading to him hooking up with Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff.
The group’s latest album Some Nights helped the band to garner a mainstream colletive — winning two awards at the 2013 gramiea – beating other popular artist Frank Ocean and The Lumineers.
Tickets for the “Most Nights Summer Tour” are $43.35 and are still available via Ticketmaster — each Ticket purchase includes a $1 donation to The Ally Coalition. Doors open up at 7 p.m. with the show starting promptly at 8 p.m.
All shows are expected to sale out so the sooner you buy your ticket the better.
Canadian sister-duo Tegan and Sara will open the show.
For the most updated information regarding the “Most Nights Summer Tour” please visit Fun.’s Fun. or follow the group on Twitter:
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John Witherspoon to play Orlando Improv this weekend (review)
Courtesy of John Witherspoon If laughter is universal than the cosmos were one on Friday night. Watching John Witherspoon’s stand-up was the closest I’ve ever come to a religious experience — a packed room, the lights dim, and teeth shining everywhere.
Witherspoon is funny — not just “Friday” funny — not just “The Boondocks” funny, John Witherspoon is funny on his own.
It’s a hard thing to be funny on your own; to stand on a stage and not only expect the audience to laugh, but command that the audience laugh.
Witherspoon has a developed act — the astute observer will see no seams within the comedy force that is within him.
He releases his material into the audience like a well oiled machine – never pausing for too long or getting tongue tied and forgetting what to say.
It’s beautiful, when he laughs, it’s the laugh of a man who knows he has you exactly where he needs you.
I’ll be the first to admit I went into the Orlando Improv with preconceived notions.
Interestingly, Witherspoon knows who you think he is and what you’ve come to see, so he begins his show by delivering just that.
There’s nothing more perfect than hearing “Bang, Bang, Bang!” in person. All these years, that character we’ve grown to love, on screens both big and small, was just Witherspoon being himself.
It should not be legal for a man to be this funny. At a certain point, laughter can become deadly — just imagine – a laughter so hard breathing is next to impossible, however it’s all that you can do so you attempt to wind it down and hope not to explode.
That is the sort of talent that should be illegal and Witherspoon possesses it in spades.
A comic’s comic to the fullest. There were points when one would look around and see other professional comics doubled over in laughter — their faces so red you’d think blood vessels were bursting in mass.
Contrary to popular belief, this is a normal occurrence when dealing with true comic genius. Comedy may be truth in its purest form; able to both arm and disarm at the same time. Generally, people laugh at the same things because, at the end of the day, the human experience is shared by all of us. Friday night in that room, dozens of people became one.
For a moment, we all became John Witherspoon.
John Witherspoon will be performing live at the Orlando Improv this entire weekend. You can catch him live on Saturday, Aug. 7th at 7:30 PM and 10:15 p.m. and then again on Sunday, Aug. 8th at 7:30 PM.
Tickets are $22 and seats are on a first come first serve basis. All guest must be 21 or older
By OBK Staff
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Icona Pop hits Florida with K.Flay and Sirah (preview)
Swedish DJ duo Icona Pop, who brought us electro hit “I Love it” will host the party, making the “Iconic Tour” the band’s first U.S. headlining tour.
As the summer wraps up, and college campuses across the state prepare for the upcoming semester, the all girl “Iconic Tour” stops in Florida for one last ragefest.
They will not be alone– female producer rapper K.Flay and Grammy award winning rapper Sirah, have tidied up their tour bus and will travel as supporting acts.
With her EP Inhale available now, Sirah enjoys every minute traveling alongside her Atlantic record label mates Icona Pop.
The “Iconic Tour” makes its way to the House of Blues this Friday, Aug. 16. Doors open up at 7 p.m. with the show starting promptly at 8 p.m. Tickets are $27 and are still available via Ticketmaster. Tickets will be sold at the venue the day of the event with a price inflation.
All tickets are general admission standing room only– there are no seats.
This show is presented by TIGI Bed Head, who will provide pop-up dry-styling stations to allow fans to glam up before the show.
For the most updated information regarding the “Iconic Tour” please visit Icona Pop official website or follow the duo on Twitter.
You can also follow K.Flay and Sirah on Twitter as they will be performing some stops without Icona Pop.
Other Florida dates:
Saturday, Aug. 17 | Miami, Fla. at Grand Central
Sunday, Aug 17 | Tampa, Fla. at The Ritz
By OBK STAFF
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Concert Review: Icona Pop stops at House of Blues alongside girl-friends
LAKE BUENA VISTA — You may not be able to put faces to the names Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo just yet, but with their recent success – attaining double platinum status for single “I Love It,” while having song placements on video games and television shows, there’s no way you can go anywhere without hearing or seeing something connected to the Swedish DJ duo, Icona Pop.
After a year of performing on different festival sets throughout the world, the group have finally netted their well-deserved, first-ever headlining tour in America.
Electronic dance music (EDM), hip-hop and rock are just a few of the genres you can hear at the festival-like, all girl “Iconic Tour,” presented by TIGI Bed Head, which made stops in Florida this past weekend.
A mixed crowd of guys sporting the “Macklemore haircut,” hardcore rave fans, and toddlers whose bedtime is generally around the time the show started, filled the House of Blues Orlando Friday night, to see the “Iconic Tour” featuring Icona Pop and friends.
Sultry redhead – Hjelt took the stage sporting a black and white, Judy Jetson-based, Spice Girl-influenced one piece costume, with the Icona Pop DJ Booth behind her resembling the Star Trek Auxiliary Control Center and her best friend, Jawo, on the other side.
It’s great to see how far the duo has come in such little time — rewind to December of last year, when Icona Pop made their Orlando debut opening for “The Lonely Hearts Club Tour” where they had to cram all of their laptops and mixers onto a foldout table, limiting their movement- having to wrap the microphone cord up and swing the remainder of it over the table if they wanted to move from one side to the stage to the other.
“On this song, I’m going to sing this together with you guys,” Hjelt said in her thick swedish accent before getting into “Girlfriend”, showing off her vocal strength as the crowd recited the lyrics in perfect cadence. Whether it was Aino – playing the electric guitar, or Hjelt- singing, neither member just sat around and watched sharing the spotlight evenly as they rotated back and forth between their midis and laptop setup.
The energy was off the Richter scale from the moment the ladies shot on their black helmets and performed “Manners”, completely from behind their DJ booth, to their final song – performing summer hit single “I Love It” – in the middle of the stage with brews in hand as the ladies provided the perfect pre-game event for anyone who was going out afterwards to further enjoy their night.
While the crowd could not recite the groups newer material off their upcoming album, This Is, as well as they could with some of the duo’s older and more popular songs, it did not stop them from enjoying the concert during songs “All Night” and “Light Me Up” as they danced and kept their hands waved high in the air during the entire performance.
Between their singing, dancing and electrifying light show, Icona Pop managed to transition their studio sound into a live set. The duo is truly talented and appeared to be enjoying themselves the entire night which transitioned well into the crowd, hosting the prettiest party I have ever been to.
Both supporting acts were very multifaceted and set the tone early. Los Angeles-based rapper Sirah opened the show singing a mix of pop and EDM jingles, which some of her newer fans know her for, but also managed to fit in some of her earlier hard in your face rap records, showing love to her underground hip hop past. Don’t let her petite size fool you, the wild-hair MC has a very strong presence demanding you tune into what she is saying.
K.Flay took the stage next and was just as fun. Between the head bashing, fast rapping, and live beat making – K.Flay’s set was all over the place yet she managed to keep the crowd engaged the entire time. From the time she hit the stage, sporting her black jeans, black leather jacket, and black sleeveless “Black Skinhead” t-shirt- it was evident that female producer/rapper had no mindset of winning a fashion contest instead was just there to rock out. While K.Flay proved she could cross over into multiple genres, it would have been nice to see her focus on one specific style giving fans who may not be that familiar with her music the opportunity to get a general feel.
Whoever said girls can rock out as hard as the guys must have never seen these ladies. All the ladies are fun, talented and exciting- bringing different elements in their set to combine for one great night. The “Iconic Tour” is hardly underway and I would suggest everyone to go check it out, as it is an event that the whole family could enjoy.
T.Y. Moment of the Night
It’s good to see supporting artist support – adding onto the bill and not just acting as a slot filler until the headlining act is ready. Sirah and K.Flay we’re dope on and off the stage interacting with fans concluding their set. Instead of listening from the back of the stage, both artist and their crew went into the crowd and watched as fans alongside of their supporters. K.Flay got so turnt up from Icona Pop’s performance that she decided to partake in the crowd surf.
By OBK
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