After endless reminders that The Go! Team were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for Thunder, Lighting, Strike, we finally get to see them in action so we can all judge for ourselves what the fuss is about.
To call the night of entertainment we had a mixed bag would be an understatement to say the least.
To begin the show was the most unlikely looking of bands. Smoosh, a two
piece band from Seattle, graced the stage and started to produce
pleasant sounds from a keyboard and drum kit. Imagine Keane, but making
music that doesn’t want you to contemplate hurting yourself in some
way. What really sets Smoosh apart from most other bands is the fact they
are 11 and 13-year-old sisters. Instead of doing their homework like
most kids their age, they were busy making everyone in the room smile
and nod their head with pleasing melodies. Smoosh were a weird choice in a
support act, but it strangely worked, with a lot of people giving them
a decent reception. They then presumably left the stage after their
slot to go to bed; it was getting you late you know…
Finally, The Go! Team – Brighton’s finest export – arrived to a frenzied crowd who went
mental when they broke into opening track Junior Kickstart. For a band
that doesn’t exactly make the kind of music that dares you to start
going crazy and pushing people around, it happened! From start to
finish everyone at the sold-out gig was moving and grooving to
everything The Go! Team were putting out. Be it songs from Thunder, Lightning, Strike or brand new ones, that didn’t matter. Everyone was just content
on having a time.
Its hard to actually describe exactly the type of sounds that The Go! Team make.
Most people would lump them in to the ever-growing genre of ‘dance
music’ which – in theory – it is, but so many styles are incorporated – from
70’s funk to hip-hop beats, it’s all there somewhere. Lead singer Ninja (fake name perhaps?) takes us all back to the old days by getting the
ladies in the crowd to scream/sing/chat “go go go” whilst all the
blokes do the same but say “team team team”. Just in case we all forgot
who we were seeing.
Even though MC Ninja is the apparent onstage focus of the band, she was defiantly the
weak link of the performance. She was the only member of the seven-piece band that didn’t partake in playing one of the various
instruments at some point; be it the drums, guitar, bass, harmonica,
banjo, keyboard or piano. But to give her credit, she did smash a
tambourine around a little bit! What made the performance better was
after each song everyone had a go at another instrument, showing that The Go! Team are a talented bunch of guys and gals. PA problems also drowned Ninja out from the music underneath her, but the crowd also did the same
as everyone sang their hearts out to songs like Bottle Rocket and
Ladyflash.
Band and audience all seemed to have a good time, so much so that after
they finished the set most members of The Go! Team took part in a
massive crowd-surfing trip around the university, before the bouncers
cut short the fun.
If you want to check out a band that’ll make you move, smile and sing
all at the same time, then check The Go! Team out before they go back to the
studio to make a follow-up record.
[review by Matthew Laidlow]