OneRepublic Celebrate the World Cup at New York Gig

By Emily Tan Posted Jul 8th 2010 03:00PM

The US may have been knocked out of the World Cup a couple of weeks ago but that didn't mean the game was over for OneRepublic. The Colorado pop-rockers, whose song 'Marching On' is the German national soccer team's 2010 World Cup anthem, shared their soccer fever at their show in New York City's Terminal 5 on Wednesday night.

"We were watching the game today," frontman Ryan Tedder told the crowd, "and this song was the last song that we wrote for ['Waking Up,' their second album], and this was the official song for the German team until they got their asses handed to them by Spain. So, this is really a celebration for the World Cup."

But soccer wasn't the only thing on Tedder's mind as the band performed hits from their first record 'Dreaming Out Loud' and the band's latest album. Catching his breath after singing 'Secrets,' Tedder brought up the biggest current American sports story. "All right New York City, I know we're all thinking the same thing: Where the hell is Lebron James gonna go?" he said. "My feeling is not Denver."

Sports aside, OneRepublic were full of energy that night as the band was celebrating 'Waking Up' going double platinum and treated fans to a series of covers including a medley of Ben E. King's 'Stand by Me,' the White Stripes' 'Seven Nation Army' and a snippet of 'Sexy Back' by Justin Timberlake. But the cover that surprised everyone was OneRepublic's rendition of Franz Ferdinand's 'Take Me Out,' which sounded extremely close to the original.

On top of Tedder's ridiculous vocal range to the band's ability to make orchestral sounds cool, a highlight of the night was when OneRepublic's fans happily joined in on singing along to the band's songs. "We're in New York, and you're the loudest people on earth," Tedder said. "Now that I have you gathered here, I want you to sing with me because it gets me off and I enjoy it."

While OneRepublic brought an arsenal of tricks for the crowd last night, there were a few other surprises that popped up. Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles played a special opening set for everyone that she only announced on Twitter the day before, and 'Glee' stars Lea Michele, Jenna Ushkowitz and Jonathan Groff stopped by the show to catch Bareilles' performance and a bit of OneRepublic. Alt-pop artist Ryan Cabrera was also seen rocking out to the show's headliners.

Riding on one big performance high, the band ended their set with the title track of their sophomore album and reminded everyone that they would return to New York, which Tedder called their "second home."

"We're going to be back here this fall," he announced before singing 'Waking Up.' "If any of you guys find yourselves in Europe, we're opening for U2. And if you're in the US, we're opening for ourselves so we'll see each other."

And if you won't be able to make it to a OneRepublic show this year, check out a clip of the band's cover medley below.