Gig Review: The Go! Team, Newcastle University, 24/2/06

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The Go! Team, Newcastle University, 24/2/06

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.

The show began with 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. 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.

It’s 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 theweak 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.

Written by Matthew for UKEvents.net