Review: LMFAO party rocks through town
Is LMFAO a fad?
Well, if the dance-rap crew that goes by the Internet acronym doesn’t prove to have staying power, it’s at least taking full advantage of the moment, with sky-high popularity of its carnival-like, over-the-top antics. In concert, LMFAO comes across like the Black Eyed Peas on speed — and not just because the group offers an even more hyper cover of BEP’s already hyper hit “Boom Boom Pow.”
Led by Redfoo (Stefan Kendal Gordy) and SkyBlue (Skyler Husten Gordy), LMFAO drew a boisterous, sold-out crowd to the Fillmore Silver Spring on Thursday, Nov. 17 — a headline show after opening for Ke$ha on an arena tour over the summer. Radio station Hot 99.5 sponsored the concert, and its DJs spun before and after the LMFAO carnival, handing out glowsticks to concertgoers as they arrived. Many in the crowd also bought crazy t-shirts and even crazier oversized glasses — technically, just eyeglass rims, the kind that Redfoo sports in LFMAO’s popular videos.
Fad or not — whatever you might say about LMFAO — the self-described party-rockin’ guys are laughing their asses off all the way to the bank.
But they’re not just laughing — they’re also showing their asses to the masses. For LMFAO’s Right Said Fred-channeling hit “Sexy And I Know It,” the whole male crew paraded around on stage in itty-bitty Speedos, just as in the uproarious video. “When I’m at the beach, I’m in a Speedo trying to tan my cheeks,” the duo raps — and with that, they turned around to show ‘em. One band member with a rocking bod — giving truth to the song’s shouted refrain “I work out!” — even ended up face down on the floor, with his Speedos pulled down to show his curvaceous backside in all its glory. Did I mention this band member was wearing a large cardboard-style box over his head, with electronic light slits for eyes?
Yes, it was a wild and crazy night at the Fillmore, and the band lived up to its name and its fame. LMFAO performed its breakout club hit from a few years ago, “I’m in Miami Bitch” — the first to coin a phrase. (It’s hard to spend time in Miami anymore without at least thinking of the song.) The group also performed one of this summer’s biggest hits, the “Party Rock Anthem,” with its popular refrain, “Everyday I’m shufflin’,” referring to the video’s bouncy, hodge-podge style of group choreography.
At the start of the show, the crew threw out a life-sized inflatable zebra for the crowd to surf. Later, the guys threw out a beach ball. And for the minor hit “Champagne Showers,” the crew popped corks and doused and splashed each other in bubbly, as well as those at the front of the stage. They also performed in unison a lewd gesture right to the beat of the song’s title, suggesting an activity that produces a whole other type of liquid eruption.
If it sounds crass, well, it was. But it was also enormously entertaining — and the crew only performed for about an hour and 15 minutes, so the silliness was over before it grew tiresome. Respectively, Redfoo and SkyBlu are uncle and nephew, and a son and a grandson of Berry Gordy, Jr. LMFAO may be nothing like the acts that the Motown founder launched into the mainstream generations ago, but for a new, multi-cultural, mixed raced generation, the dance/rap, “half-black, half-white, domino” LMFAO is just right, for at least right now.
These days, we could all use a good laugh.
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