Yo Gabba Gabba, live!

Today was the big day for Will and I. After we dropped off Sallie and Alex at Rosehill for a baby expo thing, we drove in to Homebush. Was relieved when there turned out to be no traffic or parking problems, so even though parking would be expensive, it was all systems go for Yo Gabba Gabba, live!

If you’re not familiar at all with Yo Gabba Gabba, a new kid’s TV show made essentially by a few 30-something ska-punk musicians and fronted by this futuristic DJ and his puppet toy friends, it is very hard to explain. The pictures here will do it some justice, but between DJ Lance and Muno, Brobee, Foofa, Plex and Toodee, you have this wild and colourful gang of all-singing, all-dancing characters that teach kids all sorts of good lessons, while also just having a good time, singing some fun songs, and providing a surprisingly good time for parents as well.

We had lunch first at the little cafe in the sports centre, and Will was temperamental about it as always. He was hungry, but also a bit crazy from the anticipation of the show, I know. So many other kids there, and an enormous amount of t-shirts from the show already, which we hadn’t seen much. After queueing for a short time, which at first Will hated but then he got used to very quickly, we were hustled into the venue. Reasonably large stage, good seating plan so everyone basically had a good seat.

It was fun right from the outset, with a local “house band”, the Pookynoos, who must be local kids entertainers — they knew just where to pitch things and they fitted in well.

DJ Lance, when he came on stage, was the consummate performer, really enganging well with the audience and showing a very “live” performance style — while it was obviously pre-planned, he was still very spontaneous and natural, especially when he came out into the audience for two segments.

And when the characters arrived on stage, the crowd went wild, and that’s when the familiar songs started up. I couldn’t decide if the character voices were performing live or were pre-recorded, so I decided it didn’t matter — the show worked well either way. They did about 30-35 minutes then had “snacky snack” time, then did another 35 minutes to finish. From my adult perspective, I could have imagined the show being longer, but really, considering the age of most of the audience, that was about as long as they could manage. Will’s five and it was probably just enough for him… many other kids were a lot younger, and you could see some of them losing it at the end.

I kept looking for Will’s reaction during the show, and I knew he was impressed. He started with this look of awe, of the sheer amazement of the characters he knows from the show suddenly being there right in front of him. Then he got right into the show, dancing and moving with the audience. Then I think at the end he was probably a bit tired out, but still very happy. That’s what we were there for 🙂

We got out of the area without any trouble, and met back up with Sallie and Alex for an afternoon Maccas snack. A really good day, and one any fan should try to get to 🙂