3Oh!3

As a fan of music, we like to believe that the artists that we listen to are actually enjoying themselves when they are on stage performing for the audience. Saturday night at the Hi Fi bar in Melbourne, it looked like 3OH!3 were having the time of their lives, and many fans in attendance will admit to sharing the same feeling. In the sometimes jaded world of entertainment, it’s refreshing to see a band that portrays the party boy image actually living up to the hype. The night opened with local boys I Explode Like performing in front of their home town crowd.

As with any opening act, I Explode Like had a difficult time in capturing the audience’s undivided attention, as people were still filing in mid-performance. However, by the end of their set, they had achieved what any good opening act should, and that’s preparing the audience for the main act. As an appetizer to the main meal, this six-piece band from Melbourne was more than passable. It was definitely a genre-blurring night as I Explode Like provided some hard-hitting screamo and, following them, DJ Skeet Skeet, put his own personal touch on many famous dance songs as well as introducing a 3OH!3/Lil' Jon collaboration that will be on Lil' Jon’s record to be released later this year. Skeet was definitely the surprise of the night, managing to turn the Hi Fi bar into a rave and truly set the stage for 3OH!3.

Skeet, a Los Angeles DJ that has worked with the likes of Katy Perry and Cobra Starship came across as a bona fide superstar, but not without providing some inspiration along the way. Between songs he talked of how his dream of becoming a DJ was initially ridiculed by those around him, and now, we the audience were live witnesses to his success. Watch this space, as DJ Skeet Skeet had an audience who barely knew his name at the beginning of the night hanging on his every word by the end of it. Then it was time for the main event as 3OH!3’s Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte hit the stage with their incomparable energy and excitement. More than just talented musicians, 3OH!3 are entertainers and they had the entire audience in the palm of their hands.

Starting their set with the up beat Punk Bitch, 3OH!3 balanced playing music with light hearted banter all night long. In between making bets with their friends backstage (which left one unfortunate member of the 3OH!3 entourage standing on stage shirtless) and guzzling down alcohol (this was the over-18 show), Sean Forman tried to match DJ Skeets motivational speech about chasing dreams…and failed; “Follow your heart…and you’ll get drunk fast”. Comical advice that may not quite meet the requirements of the under 18 show; scheduled for the following night. To be certain though, everyone in the crowd was on hand to hear the band perform their trademark sound, and they did so with undeniable charisma and flamboyance. One of the biggest treats of the night was the band deciding to play a yet to be released track entitled Hit It Again, which has all the makings of another Top ten hit. It is the type of party song that you would expect from 3OH!3 with a chorus every bit as catchy as Don’t Trust Me.

Fittingly enough, the show came to a its final crescendo with the aforementioned Don’t Trust Me, a crowd pleaser that propelled 3OH!3 into the mainstream world of music earlier this year. By the end if the night, I was left asking myself who was more excited to be at the Hi Fi bar that night, 3OH!3 or their fans? And that, in a nutshell is what makes 3OH!3 such an amazing live act. Deep down, I believe the audience wants to know that the performers are enjoying the performance just as much as the crowd. Sometimes it’s refreshing to know that performers just love what they do.

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