OK Go returned to the country to celebrate the launch of new album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky. Unfortunately, tonight’s opening show of the tour felt more mercenary than magical, with only a few highlights to keep it from being a total dud.

Local pop quartet Hungry Kids Of Hungary ’s set doesn’t really take off until about a third of the way through, when guitarist Dean McGrath rips out a Chuck-Berry style riff, while co-frontman Kane Mazlin smashes his tambourine down on his knee as hard as he can. There are similar moments of levity sprinkled throughout the set, such as Mazlin and McGrath harmonising over a frenetic Ryan Strathie drum solo during All You Need To Know, and the big power-pop lala finish to Two Stones. The band works best when they’re pushing themselves on their instruments, but too many songs have a coasting feel. While they still have a way to go before they turn from a nice band to see to an essential musical experience, a superbly executed reggae cover of MIA’s Paper Planes shows they’ve got the potential to go all the way.

For the uninitiated, all you need to know about OK Go can be summarised in three aspects of the first song; the bass player is wearing schoolboy shorts (like another band currently touring Australia), there’s a video behind them of someone dancing against a wallpaper backdrop, covered completely in wallpaper themselves, and they use a confetti cannon. Unfortunately, over the course of the set, the gimmicks start to take centre stage.

They hit all the big singles along the way – Get Over It, Don’t Ask Me, and breakthrough hit Here It Goes Again – but frontman Damian Kulash is the only one who seems even remotely interested, with the other three simply going through the motions. They don’t interact with the crowd, they don’t interact with each other, they barely move on stage and they don’t seem to be enjoying themselves at all, which, for a party pop rock band, is a real mood killer. Back From Kathmandu adds extra cowbell from guitarist Andy Ross, but even that feels under-utilised and perfunctory.

There are some real highlights though. Older song What To Do is performed entirely on handbells, with a table containing around 20 of the bells brought out on stage for all four members to play with. And Kulash teaches the crowd to sing for new single This Too Shall Pass. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between, and the lack of personality and energy from the band gets more oppressive as the night wears on. Once the last song sees the third use of the confetti cannon for the night, it’s clear OK Go have run out of tricks.