If you have a little person living in your house who is age 4 or under, chances are you’ve heard of Yo Gabba Gabba.   And if you haven’t, you should check it out.  Because everyone needs to get the sillies out!

This fun show has been a favorite in our house for several years.  Getting to attend the live show was like Christmas all over again in February.    The show we attended was in downtown Asheville, NC which is one of my favorite towns. (Check out my upcoming post about it on Tuesday 2/19.)     When the show started, it was exciting to be a part of it.  The opening was really similar to the beginning of a regular episode, except this time the audience was part of the show!!  My son absolutely LOVED that.   Almost immediately, DJ Lance had us all on our feet dancing and singing along.   I am completely convinced that DJ Lance keeps so trim from all that dancing because we were exhausted by the third song. 

I enjoyed the fact that the kids were encouraged to be active participants in the show.  When we’re watching Yo Gabba Gabba at home, my kids enjoy dancing along with the characters so this was a natural reaction for them during the show.   The music was really exciting and fun.  I dare you to attend this show and NOT be-bop along.   The colors are so bright and vivid that it was like being part of a rainbow.   The transitions throughout the show were perfectly timed….just as my son was tiring out from a song, the characters changed the scene to a game.  I loved that they encouraged interactive play, such as “Freeze” and singing names.   The timing was great because the games gave us a chance to sit down and catch our breath before the next dance-off.  We ended up sitting behind a dad with extreme stamina.  The man stood while holding his child for at least 30 minutes….I gave out long before that.  He was the only one standing, by the way.  Luckily we were able to see around him most of the time.  I do wish that there were some TV screens or something put in other areas, because with parents standing it was sometimes hard to see the stage.  That’s probably more of a venue issue than something to do with the show, though.

 If you have the song “there’s a party in my tummy” going on in your head sometimes, you’ll love that they sang that one at the show!!  Many of the songs were from the show’s episodes, which was great for little kids who love to sing along.   There were themed stories, too, that related to preschooler’s fears and joys.  For example, the hugging song was adorable.  My son hugged me throughout the entire thing!  He also loved the song about being scared of the dark, because he relates to that.  Yo Gabba Gabba knows how kids feel and it shows.

 My husband and I both commented on the fact that DJ Lance interacted with the audience multiple times.  The dialogue was often very personal and specific, clearly not scripted.  I loved that!!  Knowing that it was a truly live show made it special.  By the way, we’re pretty sure that it was the REAL DJ Lance from the show, too.  In case you were wondering.  He’s my favorite!!   I wish I could pull off an orange track suit and still be cool!  There was one song where he danced with a strobe light flashing and it was AWESOME!!!

Okay, this was also cool—there were some extremely nice workers who walked around with concessions so we didn’t even have to go stand in line.  My kids immediately spotted the cotton candy (I think they sniffed it out from outside the building, actually) so we had to have some of that.  Then during intermission when they complained that they were thirsty, neither of us adults wanted to go stand in line. Thankfully some woman came around with slushies.  The great thing about that was the spoon-straw which kept my son entertained for the entire intermission.  Thank goodness!  Mommy was tired!    Even the intermission was entertaining because the slides on the screen had little seek-and-find games, questions, and other curious things that kept my kids happy while they waited for the show to go on.

 At the end of the show, there was a really fun bubble song.  There were bubbles all around the stage, ceiling to floor.   The only thing I didn’t like about this was that my kids wanted to go up to the stage and pop the bubbles.  Well, so did everyone else’s children….and everyone else took them.  If there had been bubble machines strategically placed throughout the auditorium, it would have easily kept the entire audience happily popping during the song.  My son decided that was a good time to take a potty break.  I think he was secretly hoping to make an escape to the stage, but I didn’t give him the chance.

 Then there was the goodbye song…..again, perfectly timed.  The song was long enough to give us the cue that yes, it was time to go.  We made our grand exit at that time and made it to the parking lot with plenty of time to avoid the crowd.   The first thing my son asked…..can we go again tomorrow?

Well, YOU might be able to go tomorrow!  After all, there are lots of shows planned for the rest of the Yo Gabba Gabba Live tour.  Is there one in your town?  Find out, get tickets, and enjoy the show!  If you can’t make it to one of the shows, console yourself with the Hello Friends app.  It’s fun and has a lot of interactive features that will keep the little one entertained.