Octopoulpe Live Show Review: Gamifying Performance with Drums, Videos, and Masks

On-stage, all one could really see in terms of Octopoulpe’s touring setup were lighting elements, a laptop, a projector, and a drum set — but Octopoulpe relied heavily on pre-produced videos that offered the sonic depth of a full-fledged band performance and the impressive interactivity of a video game.

The set began with a projected slide that warned the audience of potential nudity, violence, and other offensive images to come. It then launched into its narrative storyline for the evening, which featured a video of Octopoulpe in a dystopian landscape, complete with an eyepatch.

This character was supposedly Octopoulpe in the future, calling in to talk to the present-day him. In the room, Octopoulpe conversed with his video-projected future self and occasionally asked for input from the crowd when future self asked a question. Present-day Octopoulpe could then take as long as he wanted to answer the questions of future Octopoulpe; sometimes the video was frozen until present-day Octopoulpe hit one of his drums with a strong tap. A sensor on said drum would then prompt the next video clip to play, thus continuing the storyline.

Soon, future Octopoulpe would reveal that there was a mission for real-life Octopoulpe to undertake: finding the right song to save the world from Elon Musk, who would otherwise disastrously destroy the world as we know it…!!!

With that mission in mind, Octopoulpe began rest of his playfully chaotic set. It often contained images from video games, sometimes sounded like a video game, and regularly had crowd participation that helped to further gamify it all.

Each track was backed by shirtless, underwear-clad versions of Octopoulpe playing various instruments like guitar, bass, and keyboards. Once, they stood in front of a 2D Mario Kart background, once in front of a strange treadmill scene, and once in front of an urban South Korean cityscape. On-screen guest vocalists from around the world also served as performance partners for different songs. Their wide variety of vocal stylings would occasionally be made more interesting when Octopoulpe played with a certain drum rhythm that seemed to activate yet another sensor. Said sensor would then cause the vocals to double-back and glitch out on their own, creating welcome visual and audio dissonance.

I always appreciate a show where I am captivated by what I’m seeing yet cannot fully understand how it works. Octopoulpe’s set was obviously driven by videos that were somewhat affected by drum triggers and sonic cues, but it was only in its more simple moments that I understood how the strings were being pulled. In its more complex moments, I could only see that there was a sound-and-video correlation but I remained uncertain about how it all functioned. All I really knew was that the highly technical nature of the performance left me impressed that the dude likely programmed and masterminded the whole damn thing!

Beyond Elon Musk, Octopoulpe’s show did have other overtly political messages. Sure, he got the whole room to say, “Fuck Elon Musk!” so that they could play into the main storyline of the show… but there were also messages against fascism and transphobia, as well as also comedic animated cameos from other political leaders from around the world, who were made to look like bobble-head dolls.

One highlight moment was when a politician was randomly selected through what looked like a random Wheel of Fortune-type game.Far-right French leader Marine Le Pen was chosen and then placed into a fighting match similar to one from the classic fighting game, Mortal Kombat. Octopoulpe asked the audience for a volunteer who was a fan of video games and knew more or less how to play drums.

Once selected, the willing participant came on stage and was given a list of potential drum combos that would allow them to finish Marine Le Pen off in their choice of violent ways. The fatality that the volunteer activated gruesomely ripped off Marine Le Pen’s arms in the on-screen video game, prompting the entire crowd to cheer.

While such a moment may have been satisfying enough of an ending, the storyline wasn’t quite over yet. There was still the matter of Octopoulpe finding the right song to stop Elon Musk from ruining the world. Turns out, the right song was one that was dedicated to the Ninja Turtles… and wouldn’t you have it? Octopoulpe played it just in time to save the earth from a tragic future.

(A final group photo, taken that evening, was transported on-screen as a “memory of the past.” Some drunken white girl unfortunately covered me up with her sloppy obliviousness, though I was in the front row. She could later be heard telling Octopoulpe she had just broken up with her boyfriend, while some of us in the audience rolled our eyes.)

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