Recap Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Aragon 

Stillwater lead singer Jeff Bebe in Almost Famous best defined the frontman's role and purpose: “I connect. I get people off. I look for the guy who isn't getting off, and I make him get off.” The same can be said of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O, who entertained the crap out of a packed crowd at the Aragon on Tuesday night. Not to slight or disrespect guitarist extraordinaire Nick Zinner or whirlwind drummer Brian Chase, but the night unquestionably belonged to Karen O.

After San Diego rock trio Grand Ole Party opened with its stripped-down garage-punk (marred only by peculiar equipment mishaps, including part of the drum set falling to the floor and derailing the first song), the giant, mysterious orb that overlooked the stage twisted around, revealing itself to be a big-ass eyeball—a reference to the freaky eyeball-in-mouth cover for “Zero,” the first single from the groups new album, It's Blitz! By the end of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ opener, “Runaway,” Karen O, wearing a kimono-esque outfit with tiger-striped pants, had struck about 12 poses suitable for the cover of Spin. The crowd ate it up, even cheering for minor theatrics, like when she got a bottle of water. If the band had bombed musically, Karen O would still have been a thrill to watch. Thankfully, the band ably supported her, though it never came close to attracting as much attention.

Musically, Karen O's performance was dead on as well. Varying shrieks have defined much of her vocal style, and they were in heavy abundance at the Aragon. She even shrieked while bantering with the audience. “This song is about L to the O to the V to the E. Love! This is dedicated to all lovers in Chicago tonight,” she said, inexplicably screaming the last part as if she was introducing Kiss instead of the song "Maps." Oddly, this breakthrough hit from 2003's Fever To Tell was, hands down, the night's sole disappointment. Stripped down to Karen O’s voice and Zinner on acoustic guitar, “Maps” was relatively beautiful, but far too quiet and subdued, allowing wannabe drunk singers in the crowd to overpower the band.

Thankfully, the entire group rejoined to close with a faithful rendition of “Y Control,” ending with a wall of feedback. It was probably the night’s best-received moment, along with the multiple hand-clapping build-ups of “Cheated Hearts.” For the encore's first song, “Heads Will Roll,” Karen O returned to the stage wearing a creepy neon-pink mask that looked like the world’s largest bubble of gum popped onto her face. She kept the shocks coming on the next offering, “Art Star,” from the band’s 2002 self-titled debut EP. As the song’s chorus consists mostly of a horror-movie-worthy scream, Karen took the opportunity to inhale the microphone through her mouth. The resulting noise was somewhere between a guttural roar and indistinguishable static.

Fever To Tell’s “Date With The Night” marked the end of a sweaty, exhausting, and immensely entertaining evening.  Witnessing Karen O was like watching a kid play rock star with the stereo booming and nobody watching: unbridled joy and occasional bizarreness set to a killer soundtrack.