You Can Never Have Enough Keyboards- Oh No! Oh My! @ the Echo Saturday February 24, 2007

Austin just keeps bringing the good music lately. If it wasn’t for Texas’ crazy “shoot trespassers at will” laws and no basement in the Alamo, I’d highly consider that a place to move to. Oh No! Oh My! are yet another band that confirms my jealousy of this town.

I’m only going to review ONOM due to the amount of time I let lapse between seeing the show and me forgetting all the other bands that played with them. (I seem to be confusing a Bodies of Water show’s opening acts with who actually appeared this night. But I’ve been super busy, so let’s just let this slip this one time.)

First, Oh No! Oh My! packed the stage with enough people and equipment that one got the feeling of the stage collapsing in on itself every time someone jumped up and down, which was a lot. From what I’ve gathered, there are only 3 people actually in the band, and when they tour they ask friends/musicians to come along and play with them. Just to give you a glimpse as to crazy amount of instruments on stage, here is a sampling: guitars, drums, banjos, accordions, tambourines, bells, stomping feet, and keyboards, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD so many keyboards. Myself and a fellow keyboard enthusiast (read: nerds) where almost drooling all of ourselves at the Farfisa.

Instantly when they started playing everyone began to bop along to the music. A few of their songs are pretty popular on the indie circuit (“Walk in the Park”, “I Have No Sister”), but even I’m not sure where I actually heard of them first. Anyways, these guys are so full of energy and are fun to watch perform. It seems like the crowd feeds off them and they feed off the crowd and it becomes one big feeding frenzy of energy and catchy melodies that make you want to throw your hands up and dance silly, which they also do on stage.

I couldn’t help beaming; my face was on the verge of splitting in two right where the TMJ in my jawbones resides. ONOM’s music is happy without being sugary, electronic without wanting you to kick the kid with the glow sticks, and hip enough to pack the Echo to capacity. Oh, but there is that slight discrepancy between their live and their recorded music. The album’s liner notes say that it was made in their bedroom, so I guess trying to fit all that equipment into someone’s boudoir is a feat best left up to a magician of some sorts. The album comes off sounding a bit quieter and more stripped down. But I’m not reviewing the album, I’m reviewing the concert. And the concert was good.