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"It&amp;apos;s been a while since we&amp;apos;ve seen Gnarls Barkley frontman Cee-Lo Green. &amp;quot;As you can see,&amp;quot; he said from stage at New York City&amp;apos;s Highline Ballroom last night, &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;ve grown a full head of beautiful hair!&amp;quot; Onmi-pop duo Gnarls Barkley played their first show in support of just-released second album The Odd Couple, and yeah, first things first: Cee-Lo rocked a huge pompadour and clutched what looked like a vintage Shure, leading his six-piece crew (including producer Danger Mouse) as the howling frontman of a puffy-shirted soul band -- maybe the kind that would play a bar mitzvah or the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance in Back to the Future. Together they previewed the set they&amp;apos;ll presumably be bringing out to the festival circuit this summer when they hit Lollapalooza, the KCRW World Festival and probably a couple others.\r\n(Check out photos from the show here.)\r\n&amp;quot;It was a night of working out kinks -- opener Santogold smiled and joked through her technical problems and her issues with remembering stage props. But when she hit the growling synths of &amp;quot;Creator,&amp;quot; everyone freaked out anyway, whether they knew her as the next rising kitchen-sink popster or just &amp;quot;Santowho?&amp;quot; she definitely made an impression. Apologizing up front for their own tech glitches, there were ostensibly problems with Gnarls Barkley&amp;apos;s earpiece monitors, what appeared to be an unplugged Moog, some ill-placed stage banter and a little lag-time when the five-blue-jacketed multi-instrumentalists approximated Mr. Danger Mouse&amp;apos;s kitschpunk productions by hectically switching from glock to upright bass to whatever -- but damned if we noticed or cared. Since the Barkley band was scrambling around the stage like busy chemists searching for an antidote, it only created a unique tension that made everything more human and fun.\r\nOpening with &amp;quot;Charity Case,&amp;quot; the band rumbled through material off The Odd Couple, including &amp;quot;Surprise,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Going On&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Whatever.&amp;quot; When they hit &amp;quot;Run,&amp;quot; Cee-Lo embodied the Little Richard figure he was portraying -- someone who had let their pious side mingle with their dark side in tortured abandon, opening his arms to lead a pop spiritual, then running his hands through his thick wig. Pure ecstasy or a piece of theater made to approximate pure ecstasy? It didn&amp;apos;t really matter. (Danger Mouse, however, stayed cool as a cucumber, stuck behind his shades and his organ.)\r\nAnd, duh, of course they played &amp;quot;Crazy,&amp;quot; as they will in every show for the next forty years, complete with a self-aware shrug from Cee-Lo and a mike held over the audience -- all met with the screaming, singing along or wistful stares you could expect from any band performing their Thriller moment. Gnarls Barkley doesn&amp;apos;t have a &amp;quot;Man in the Mirror&amp;quot; moment (yet), but they tried with bittersweet closer &amp;quot; Little Better&amp;quot; and encore &amp;quot;Smiling Faces.&amp;quot; Still nothing got a reaction like &amp;quot;Crazy.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;You&amp;apos;re not tired of that song yet? &amp;quot; joked Cee-Lo. Ha ha ha, bless your soul.\r\nRelated Stories: &amp;#x2022; Gnarls Barkley&amp;apos;s Cee-Lo on &amp;quot;Crazy&amp;quot;and Austin Powers &amp;#x2022; Gnarls Barkley: The Summer&amp;apos;s Weirdest Breakthrough &amp;#x2022; New Music Report: Gnarls Barkley&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;The Odd Couple&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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