00s indie fans emotional at ‘unbelievable’ footage of band playing huge hit as goofy college kids before fame-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro

Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden were at college together when they accidentally formed MGMT (Picturr: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)

MGMT fans are in awe of some ‘insanely historic’ footage that’s emerged of bandmates Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser playing their anthem Kids four years before it was released.

The Time To Pretend hitmakers joined forces in Wesleyan University during their freshman year in 2002, and while they weren’t trying to form a band, the unassuming duo would go on to soundtrack the noughties.

Now some incredible footage, uploaded in November on YouTube, is going viral, showing the two college kids playing Kids years before its release – and before they found fame – in 2003.

The video shows the pair introducing their song in a makeshift set to a crowd of 30 or so people at a low-key Zonker Harris concert at university. Fellow college students apparently realised it was a banger long before it reached the mainstream, as they danced away to the song.

The iconic synth backing track kicks in and both Andrew and Benjamin flail around goofily – the latter with a hairband around his head – as they perform the song wearing dishevelled shirts and big smiles.

Getting well and truly into the performance the pair actually got on the floor and crawled around in fits of hysterics, before jumping around full of energy and belting out the chorus between laughs.

The pair’s biggest hits Time to Pretend and Kids actually began as satire (Picture: Noam Galai/Getty Images for Sony Hall)

They then together mimicked playing the keyboard live in the latter part of the song, before the pair suddenly ran off, with the shaky Cannon GL2 miniDV camera following.

With some tree branches in tow, the pair began playfighting with them like kids would a make believe sword fight, as their track played on faintly in the background.

They return to the stage with their branches, laughing at each other and singing the rest of Kids, with the lyrics: ‘A family of trees wantin’ to be haunted.’ Iconic.

Fans were struck by how much fun the pair looked like they were having – and the fact that the song remained unchanged on its release years later, when it solidified itself as a failsafe, era-defining party banger.

‘This video is like staring into a sun of nostalgia. If you look for too long, it’ll hurt you,’ wrote @TM-ri3ii.

‘Insanely historical, made me emotional for some reason,’ added @ethanewilde69, while @mazda9624 said: ‘I had absolutely NO idea the song was this old. They already had the entire thing down in 2003!’

‘This might just be the most genuinely pure video I have ever seen,’ raved @BWOSandman, adding: ‘It had me way more emotional than I expected to be. It’s like it instantly unlocked all of my memories of being a goofy creative kid in college surrounded by goofy creative friends.’

‘This is unbelievable footage,’ said @mojo_sports, continuing: ‘There’s something special about seeing somebody or a group before they were famous.’

After their college performances MGMT released an EP, which was picked up by Columbia Records (Picture: Anthony Pidgeon / Redferns for Getty Entertainment)

They never actually intended to form a band but just enjoyed sharing music with each other (Picture: Wendy Redfern/Redferns)

@davidriesmeyer248 was loving the footage so much he said it’s the greatest to have ever graced the video platform.

‘After like 20 years of YouTube’s, this is the greatest thing that will ever be uploaded in its history. This is life manifest,’ they said.

‘I love that the crowd instinctively know they’re listening to something special. No one knew the song but they’re compelled to get up and dance,’ commented @martinandrewsnz, while @flokhemwong48 said: ‘I cant stop watching this. this must be one of the most iconic moments ever.’

MGMT brought their brand of psychedelic pop into the mainstream, along with their other hit Electric Feel, in their 2007 debut album Oracular Spectacular – which remains their highest-grossing album of all time.

Funnily enough, Time to Pretend and Kids were actually intended to be satires of the pop machine of the time. Little did Ben and Andrew know they’d created one of the decade’s biggest albums.

After their songs gained popularity around campus, they released Time To Pretend as an EP, which was picked up by Columbia Records.

Goldwasser told The Times earlier this year: ‘Seeing how people responded, even when we played at college parties, made me realise we had something.’

He continued: ‘But we never thought: let’s go for it. We were meant to be making a mockery of stardom, poking fun at how ridiculous it all is. We got signed to Columbia Records after we left college, at which point we weren’t even a band any more.’

Following their successful debut, the pair went back to their darker, synthy roots – which is what bonded them in the first place – with the release of their second studio album Congratulations, but this and their following records failed to reach themainstream success of Oracular Spectacular.

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