So the guy next to me turns around during The Go! Team‘s final song last night — while the 300 or so on hand were jumping up and down to the beat with their hands in the air — and he says “I’m proud of Omaha tonight.” Yeah, people actually danced at last night’s show. But really, how could they not? Not only does the Go! Team’s flavor of trip-hop meets indie meets School House Rock good-time music produce involuntary “bounce” spasms, there also was Spice Girl-style front woman Ninja yelling for people to “show their best moves” while she waved her arms like a hip-hop aerobics instructor. The crowd wanted her to like them, and judging by her comment — “Best American crowd evah!” (which I’m sure she says to all the guys) — she did.

Lots of surprised last night:

The turnout, for example. Says Ninja, “We were afraid no one here would know who we were and that we’d be playing to an empty room.”

The music, for another example. While I knew it was going to be different than the records, I didn’t expect it to be as hip-hop heavy (and at times just plain heavy) as it was. Six people constantly changing instruments, including two drum sets, glockenspiel, keyboards, recorder, guitar and bass. I have no idea how the samples — a Go! Team staple — were handled. Some horn samples were programmed into one of the keyboards. But for the most part the sample effects from the recordings were reinterpreted by the instruments.

And finally, the dancing. I warned them that they could be playing in front of a crowd of arm-crossed zombies. That wasn’t the case. The last time I saw that kind of pogo-ing was at a 311 show.

It wasn’t all dance music, though. The band played at least four unreleased songs, and two or three of them were somber instrumentals. The first one sounded like an Arcade Fire offshoot. Another sounded like it came from the motion picture soundtrack to ’70s thriller The Parallax View (the part where Warren Beatty is brain washed — you remember don’t you?). The instrumentals brought the crowd down. But each was followed by another roaring dance number that usually involved Ninja prompting the crowd to yell-spell GO! TEAM or scream “OH Yeah!” which the crowd was more than happy to do.

Tonight, a first for One Percent Production — the As I Lay Dying show that was slated for Sokol Auditorium has been moved downstairs to Sokol Underground due to poor ticket sales. Also on the bill are Black Dahlia Murder, Terror, Evergreen Terrace, Through the Eyes of the Dead and Cellador. The show still starts at 6:30 (it would have to considering the number of bands) and still costs $15. I’m guessing this will now sell out…

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