Four years ago, two friends from Boulder, Colorado, named their band after their area code and began writing songs mentioning Helen Keller. Today, they’re performing around the world for hundreds of thousands of people, dancing on stage in Winnie the Pooh costumes, and making music videos.
3Oh!3 blew fans away Oct. 1 at Pipeline Café. Not only did the 9:30 p.m. show pack in high energy from band members Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte, but also, it sported a flashy light show and a powerful background DJ.
3Oh!3 was not afraid to get involved with the crowd, Foreman was seen on more than one occasion going past the security guards to jump and sing in the crowds’ faces. From the perspective of the audience it was a very interactive show. Aside from Foreman and Motte coming into the crowd, there were dozens of crowd surfers and the occasion bra fling. Foreman was not shy about holding these up and showing the crowd.
The show lasted just over one hour. When 3Oh!3 left stage, the audience, unsatisfied, called them back chanting, "one more song." They were not fooled. 3Oh!3 left without performing their biggest hit from their newest album, Don’t Trust Me.
Foreman and Motte came back out and without any hesitation began those six little words, "…Black dress/with the tights underneath…" and that was what the entire crowd needed to turn into a jumping frenzy.
The guys ended their concert by doing one final crowd rush and shaking what few hands they could among dozens that were reaching out for them. 3Oh!3 was in Honolulu for about a week taking in the tourist attractions of Waikiki and places around North Shore such as Waimea Bay and the Dole Plantation. Views of their excursions were seen on their Twitter updates.
Foreman and Motte met at the University of Colorado at Boulder when Sean was a freshman and Nat was a sophomore. Their interest in the underground and experimental hip hop scene brought them together, and the duo began experimenting, making beats and playing around on the turn tables. This was the beginning of the unusual rap/hip hop/pop/electronic band known as 3oh!3.
In the summer of 2007, they released their self-titled, first album. That same summer, they performed at the Denver Warped Tour date. They returned and played the whole tour in both 2008 and this past summer. "I chipped Sean’s tooth in the first week," Motte said in an interview with absolutepunk.net, adding "then I chipped it again later. I think we were on stage romping around and I hit the microphone into his face."
Every show the band plays is different, but every show is full of energy, costumes, dancing and props; the band has just as much fun as the audience. "One showing out in Ventura, I think we had a T-shirt cannon, and we were shooting glitter out of it. Some shows we go out in the crowd and have dance parties, and some shows we wear Winnie the Pooh costumes. It’s like whatever we can get our hands on, we’ll do." Foreman said in an interview with Alloy Magazine.
The band was signed with Photo Finish Records and released its second album, Want, in July 2008. They initially were in New Orleans on the day of the release, and Foreman actually shed a tear of joy that day while at a coffee shop. The CD contains both their singles, "Don’t Trust Me" and "Starstrukk".
"I like to write a lot that’s obviously tongue in cheek, and make references that some people might be offended by, but keep it on that fence, and just be clever enough that it’s not one or the other," Foreman said in an interview with Ryan Cooper.
"I said shush girl/shut your lips/do the Helen Keller/and talk with your hips," lyrics from "Don’t Trust Me," is one of those references. However, according to Sean, "…the underlying meaning of that is just to dance." They’re not commenting on who she was or what she did.
And just for the record, when it comes to their lyrics "…and tell your boyfriend/if he says he’s got beef/that I’m a vegetarian…," Foreman is a vegetarian and is the one who wrote this. Motte, on the other hand, is not.
You never know quite what to expect from them – they’ve done performances with Katy Perry and Lil Jon this past summer at Warped Tour, and they’ve opened for Snoop Dogg.
They were nominated for Best New Artist at the VMAs, and they are currently in New Zealand and Australia for three and a half weeks. After that, they’ll head to Europe for a while, then finally return home and work on some new music.
