Reviewed on Saturday May 10 at the Metro Theatre
Three-man musical parody band The Axis Of Awesome open their Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas show singing praises and high-fiving their audience to the tune of Katie Perry’s ‘Roar’. And why shouldn’t they? With a recording career longer than The Beatles’ (six years and counting), and material that evolves to remain culturally relevant, they’re the kind of artists who’ve only gotten better with time.
From Candy Crush addictions, Game Of Thrones snobbery and Macklemore’s thumb dancing to the impossibility of dancing to dubstep, the talentlessness of boy bands and the simplicity of pop music (see YouTube phenomena ‘How To Write A Love Song’and ‘Four Chords’), everything’s given a good run on the piss-take mill tonight. The Axis Of Awesome included.
Keyboardist Benny Davis receives a fair share of it, inevitably the butt of every stupid little man joke there is. Lead singer Jordan Raskopoulos is pushed out of the spotlight by guitarist Lee Naimo, who forces him to adopt a brown jug for an instrument. Naimo, the lowest common denominator, introduces us to “cranking”, his male version of the twerk.
It’s moments like this that really make a show. Halfway through a dubstep song that has the other two flying like airplanes, all eyes turn to Naimo, who’s now choking himself with his left hand and wanking with his right. The only thing that made it worse (read, funnier) was when, during a song about dancing like a man, a whole sausage-fest of audience members decided to give the crank a good, healthy, go. Onstage.
Gentlemen: we would say that what happens in Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas, stays in Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas, but let’s face it – for a band that made its mark on YouTube, it’ll probably be on the net soon.
4.5/5 stars
