!Yo!Gabba!Gabba!

Yo Gabba Gabba performed at the Hult Center on Monday, November 15th. According to Wikipedia “Yo Gabba Gabba” was created as a show for young children, it has slowly become a sensation among teenagers, college students and even some parents who are entertained by its retro style, bright colors, simplicity, and entertaining music from many of the popular bands featured on the show. As I expected to see like-minded college students see this performance, I soon realized my friend Margot and I were the only ones in the house. It didn’t take long to realize that children had taken over the building and were holding their parents hostage. I heard so much loud happy sounds prior to the show and even more when DJ Lance came out of the 40-foot television screen. A virtual boom box demands that we make some noise and as the kids scream louder we get closer to the grand introduction. Confetti and streamers explode out of the walls and balloons are dropped from the sky, stimulating the ultra-ADD children. Stimulating is an understatement, this performance wore my senses to the bone. The audience was constantly being asked to stand up and dance to the ‘party’ and not be passive bystanders. There was the head, arms, legs, and toes dance similar to the ‘head, shoulder, knees, and toes’ dance. Except this song sped up every take to the point of head banging. The parents put their kids on their shoulders and shook their old bones silly. Many interactive activities kept the kids from going nappy time.  The creatures that star in the show: Muno, Foofa, Brobee, Toodee, and Plex, dance and play. The gigantic television screen shows whimsical flash videos that go along exactly to the beat of the music and the acting and dancing of the creatures. The strange furry and vinyl creatures play hide and go seek, asking the children where their friends are. We are their friends too, because DJ Lance calls us their “new friends.” Muno is afraid of the dark, so his friends sing him a song called “Don’t be afraid of the dark.” A giant earthworm crawls across the screen and scares Foofa by its ugly appearance. So her friends sing her the “Different Friends Song,” because being different isn’t a bad thing. There’s an intermission. Kids cannot sit still for an hour and a half so I’m glad Yo Gabba Gabba accommodates that. You can text message Yo Gabba Gabba on the big screen whatever message you want and it will scroll across the screen. “Hey Grandma!” and “This is awesome!” comprise most of the sentiments. Keller Williams comes on stage for ‘music time’. Williams loops sounds out of metal tubes, beat boxing, bass guitar, guitar, Theremin, and several unconventional instruments. He played the “Hula Hoop” song, and made total sense when some children and parents came on stage hula hooping hula-hoops that flashed every color you can imagine. Balloon Song, Get Your Silly Out, Peanut Butter Stomp Dance, Go Crazy, Hugs Are Fun, and Party in My Tummy were the rest of the eccentric songs that instructed all of their friends (us) to do a certain dance according to the song content. There was a very playful imaginative animation of a little blue skateboarder boy flying atop a cloud and carrying him away. All the clouds, plants, trees, flowers, buildings, appliances, etc. had smiley faces. The grand finale was Biz Markey. He appeared on screen and said he couldn’t make it to Eugene and that he was very sorry. I was so dearly disappointed in the Biz. But then, to my sudden amazement, he walked out of the screen and started beat boxing. He asked us to repeat after him. The skills required went from vibrating your lips to vibrating your throat to compressing and decompressing air as if we were hydraulic machines like the Biz. Then he sat kids on his lap like Santa Claus told them to copy his beat box sound such as poo’ . . . ch’ . . . poo’ . . . ch’. This event produced the same effects of being on ecstasy. In a way, it was a trip.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 18th, 2010 at 2:42 pm. It is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.