Oh No Ono Cover Radiohead in NYC

Thursday night, as his band readied to play the final song of its second-ever New York City gig, Oh No Ono singer and guitarist Malthe Fischer told fans at Brooklyn's Union Hall they were about to hear "a peppy one."

"It's called 'Old Peppy One,'" he said, just before drummer Kristoffer Rom started whacking the cowbell and laying down the pinging pulse that would drive the psychedelic-punk freak-out.

The tune was actually called 'Keeping Warm in Cold Country,' an appropriate finale given the evening's frigid temps, but like every other number in the Danish quintet's 45-minute set, its title might as well have been some variation of 'Peppy One.' Oh No Ono specializes in relentlessly chipper music, fusing prog-rock chops and ambition with the restless, giddy churn of a garage-rock group.

Midway through the performance, blanket-draped, Morrissey-coiffed bassist and singer Nis Svoldgaard affected a radio announcer's voice and rattled off a few sentences in Danish, carefully enunciating the lone English word: Radiohead.

That led, naturally, into a cover of the 'In Rainbows' cut 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,' sung with echoing aplomb by guitarist Aske Zidore. Not many bands have the gall or know-how to even attempt a Radiohead cover, and Oh No Ono's stellar version was further proof of its enviable versatility.

'Weird Fishes' was a rare instance in which Zidore sang lead, and his moment in the spotlight meant a short break from the sky-high, reverb-thick vocals favored by Fischer and Svoldgaard. On such tunes as 'The Wave Ballet,' the show's hypnotic, keyboard-driven opener, Fischer delivered his lines like Ozzy Osbourne -- were the Prince of Darkness trapped in a well with nothing to subsist on but the contents of helium-filled balloons.

'Icicles,' another highlight, recalled the hallucinatory bounce of the middle portion of the Beatles' 'A Day in the Life.' If the Scandinavian band's name is a Fab Four reference -- three words that grudge-holding fans wish John Lennon had uttered the day he met his second wife, perhaps -- it's music, too, nods to the Liverpudlian godheads.

Vibrant, inventive, and unafraid of silly outfits: Oh No Ono is on its own 'Magical Mystery Tour.'

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