3OH!3 kicked off their performance at Salt Lake Community College’s Taylorsville Redwood Campus with the energetic thumping of the song Punkbitch. Amazing crowd participation helped shake the auditorium with the reverberated sounds of this electric pop duo.
The duo brought Salt Lake City knowledge to the stage when they showed appreciation towards local mountain ranges and even mentioning the cities former punk rock scene that brought many musicians to Utah in the 1980s.
“When I look around Utah, I feel star struck by these mountains,” says Nathaniel Motte laughing. “OK, that was a terrible song introduction.”
Motte and Sean Foreman delivered a charismatic, electro pop dance party feel.
With hands in the shape of a 3-0-3, everybody in the crowd chanted along to the songs, shouting the lyrics and dancing, helping the group deliver a very impressive set introduction.
Bringing mainstream pop vocal samples from such musicians as Katy Perry and Kei$ha, 3OH!3 used rap like vocals over both pop and crunk beats to add an unique twist to the pop music. Even ending their set with a pop version of Rock You Like a Hurricane by the ‘80s’ metal band, The Scorpions, where Motte and Foreman ran through the gym hugging students and giving them high fives.
For a group that was on the Billboard top one hundred, the band did not meet expectations at this performance.
The reverberation through the auditorium made it difficult to hear their vocals. The lyrical mistakes made on two of the groups popular songs My First Kiss and Eyes Closed received shades of disappointment and laughter from audience members.
This was not a good sight for the Student Life and Leadership (SLL) staff that spent $30,000 to bring the musical performance to the school. With not even 50 percent of the auditorium occupied, only about a thousand people in attendance, this concert came up short of the expected turn out according to SLL.
Opening act Allred delivered wonderful soft rock—an odd genre choice to open for a pop act. Allred grasped the audience’s hearts with their seductive sound and stunningly good looks.
Audience members shouted things like “you’re hot,” “marry me; I’m here for you” and “take your shirt off already.”
The show stealer was a student named Elliott that got dragged on stage with 3OH!3 only to take the audiences breath away with his popping and locking dance moves, even out dancing Foreman in a fake choreographed dance. With chants of “Go Elliot. It’s your birthday. We’re gonna party like it’s your birthday,” the roars from the audience proved it to be the most exciting part of the show.
While leaving the concert, a few comments being passed around between students included “the best part of the concert was when Nathan (Motte) touched my hand,” and “the best part of the show for me was when it was over.”
Although it was a fun event and the crowd bounced along to the music and even participated in a dance that brought jazz hands to the party, the energy after the show showed that it was not 3OH!3’s best concert.
