Children's show 'Yo Gabba Gabba!' takes Coachella by storm

by Maggy DONALDSON

The wide-eyed, permanently smiling, colorful characters of cult kids musical "Yo Gabba Gabba!" gave Coachella A-listers a run for their money over the weekend, as joyous fans flocked to their celebrity-packed set in the California desert.

"There's a party in my tummy / So yummy," shrieked fans in a sing-along intended to help the audience get its "wiggles" out.

The children's musical television series whose original run began in 2007 centers on costumed toys come-to-life, whose songs, visuals and interaction aim to teach children life skills, while also entertaining parents.

The show gained notoriety for its laundry list of celebrity guests, especially from the indie music world, and spawned a franchise including a touring live show.

So while at first glance its booking at Coachella -- the major music festival whose headliners this year include Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone -- seemed odd, show creators Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz told AFP it's actually a natural fit.

"We were dads going to Coachella, and working at Coachella, and we were all hyped about Coachella -- so in a lot of ways there's a lot of DNA in the creation of the show that comes directly from live music, and a lot of the bands that have played here, and the legacy of Coachella," Jacobs said during an interview at the artists' trailer backstage.

Hype man and Public Enemy rapper Flavor Flav had a top cameo during the trippy performance Saturday afternoon: the "Flavor of Love" star beatboxed about loving bugs.

Thundercat, the multi-hyphenate artist who has worked with Kendrick Lamar, arrived in a furry cat suit to perform "The Orange Cat's Special Time Outdoors."

The set closed with a rollicking rendition of the Muppet classic "The Rainbow Connection," a performance that included rock band Portugal the Man, its legendary songwriter Paul Williams, and the beloved pop music satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic.

"We don't consider 'Yo Gabba Gabba!' as like a TV show that's dabbling in music -- it's a music show," Scott Schultz said.

And the nostalgia-conjuring Coachella performance was a full-circle moment.

"The kids who were children for 'Gabba'... have grown up, and they're their 20-year-old selves," Schultz said. "It's sort of like we're performing for them a second time."

"That feels awesome," Jacobs added, to "see our own little baby show grow up."

- 'Kids at heart' -

Each of the creators has four kids of his own, some of whom are now grown and also work on the show.

"We are kids at heart, and when we had our first children we didn't want to just put them in front of kids' television and leave them," Schultz said. "We wanted to participate with them, and that felt sort of limited."

So they created their own show, drawing on their youthful backgrounds as punk rockers and their mutual love of music to invent something interactive, visual and educational.

"Music is such an amazing tool, not just for teaching, but for feeling," Jacobs said. "How do you create feeling in songs and emotion and emotional intelligence -- can that accompany a song or a vibe? Absolutely, yes."

And it was definitely a vibe at Coachella: a throng of fans spanning generations played interactive games with the characters on stage and sang along to tracks like "Don't Bite Your Friends."

"We're transporting you to a fantastical universe where we can be kids and have permission to be kids again, and it's not so much different than ours," Schultz said.

"It just is sort of fun and more colorful and more exciting and full of music."

mdo/bbk

© Agence France-Presse