WALK OFF THE EARTH
8 p.m. Juanita’s. $13.
The Ontarians in Walk off the Earth are probably best known for their cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” which was a bona fide viral hit on YouTube. It featured the five young musicians performing the song on a single acoustic guitar, with each member plucking, strumming, slapping, tapping or fretting a different part of the instrument.
They took this act on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” back in January. The affable host seemed blown away by the 30 million YouTube views the video had garnered in just a couple of weeks. As of Tuesday, it was just shy of 113 million views and back in February the group announced it had signed a deal with Columbia Records. It’s even earned all kinds of spoof versions with one quintet of smart alecks doing the act on a ukulele. In April, the band uploaded a video of a cover of Adele’s “Someone Like You” that had the members switching off instruments on the fly.
So is Walk off The Earth simply a very talented novelty act? I’m inclined to think no, but we’ll get a better idea after its debut full-length is released.