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There were no treadmills in sight on Thursday evening at the Uline Warehouse. No big Rube Goldberg machine or miles-long track of homemade instruments to drive a robot-armed Chevy through. And if there was a synchronized puppy dance, I somehow missed it.

In fact, other than some busy confetti cannons – and I mean very busy – OK Go’s 90-minute set pushed aside any sign of the viral video prop-heavy gimmickry the band is most famous for and instead relied on its power pop rock music and some charming banter to click with the Summerfest crowd. And, as it turns out, that was more than enough to deliver an awesome and entertaining evening.

Popping out on stage with little to no fanfare, the Los Angeles band (by way of Chicago) opening up the show with "Upside Down & Inside Out" and one of the night’s seemingly 114 confetti cannon showers (honestly, by the end of the gig, the audience had likely breathed in just as many tiny paper strips as oxygen molecules). It was a rocking start, but unfortunately lead singer and guitarist Damian Kulash’s instrument was a little overbearingly buzzy.

Luckily, the audio mix would clean itself up very quickly as the set went along – as fast as the next bunch of crazily infectious hooky pop rock tunes, including "You’re So Damn Hot," "The Writing’s On the Wall" and the funky groove jam "I Want You So Bad I Can’t Breathe."

OK Go has always mostly been known for its crazily inventive music videos, so much so that sometimes it seems the public forgets that those clips have some pretty awesome music playing underneath them. As a result, Thursday night’s comparatively simple show served as a nice affirmation that, as musicians, they’re really just as good. Kulash makes for a strong frontman with his surprisingly flexible voice – sometimes rocking out with some ’80s hair band wails and sometimes smoothly going into a sighing falsetto – while fellow guitarist Andy Ross got several moments to solo and rock out.

Plus, after moving away from the buzzy guitar of "Upside Down & Inside Out," the audio mix sounded clean and great, with all parts coming through and with the occasional weird instrument – a cowbell, a video game-like radar device – joining in on the fun.

While they were low of visual invention Thursday night, when it came to crowd interactions, OK Go was fully stocked on the dry witty delight of their famed videos. After "I Want You SO Bad I Can’t Breathe," Kulash, "curious who you are," decided to take some questions from the crowd. The answers were routinely hilarious, no matter if the question was about whether they’d played Chicago ("The questions are usually harder than that"), his favorite color (which he said is "limiting" but wound up, after a lengthy screed, choosing the tan color used for old computers) and their inspirations, which ranged from "M.A.S.H." to the actor Peter Sellers – a more apparent comedic inspiration that you’d first think. Overall, it was instantly charming moment, funny and sharp and – after days of seeing the same pleasant but generic "How are you doing?! You guys are great!" interactions – uniquely memorable.

Luckily, the charm didn’t wear off. The band next dipped into the slinky, strutty groove of "Obsession," as well as the "This Too Shall Pass," which sent Kulash leaning and reaching into the crowd with the mic to sing along – which the audience quite strongly complied. And he must liked what he saw craning into the crowd, because for the next song, Kulash grabbed his acoustic guitar, trekked halfway back into the bleachers and, with the help of an impromptu mic holder named Eric, played the brief acoustic tune "Last Leaf."

Cue another charming question-and-answer segment and then it was off to the pounding "Needing/Getting," "I’m Not Through," the jamming "Get Over It" and the bass-happy rocker "The One Moment," which got the riled-up crowd clapping along.

OK Go took one last session of questions ("Favorite dinosaur?" "Paul McCartney") before heading into its lone weak point in the set. It started with "Skyscraper," a good, chill bluesy wailing jam that seemed to lose the audience just a touch; after what was thus far a very energetic show, it served as an odd comedown of sorts, though not drastic. "Do Want You Want" recovered things quite nicely, but then the band busted out a cover of Led Zeppelin’s "Black Dog." In theory, it worked, giving OK Go a chance to thrash out and Kulash to let out some ’80s rock howls, but it never quite took off.

Thankfully, the band closed out the night with three strong hits of its own: the strutty "White Knuckles," the groovy "I Won’t Let You Down" and, of course, "Here It Goes Again" – with a healthy downpouring of confetti for all three songs … and, really, all the ones before then too.

For anyone hoping to see a show with the same visual inventiveness of its music videos, OK Go’s fairly straight-forward presentation Thursday night may have been a touch of a letdown (their non-festival venue shows feature a more interactive, tech-based set). But as proof that the band is much, much more than its music videos – and that its slightly nerdy, dryly witty charm can translate from YouTube to the Uline – OK Go’s Summerfest set was worthy of going viral.