The Go! Team / Review 1
The Barfly, Liverpool, 4th February 2005
It was with some anticipation that a squad of funkdubbers descended on the Barfly to see the makers of “Thunder Lightning Strike”, one of the finest albums of 2004. It’s fair to say that the London/Brighton combination didn’t disappoint.
It’s safe to say that The Go! Team’s debut album ‘Thunder, Lightning, Strike’ has captured the imagination of many a music fan of late. Their upbeat indie-dance stylings have been something of breath of fresh air. But how does it translate to a live performance?
Having been preceded by mentalist Japanese rapper, DJ Scotch Egg, who stunned the Liverpool crowd by referencing Manchester and telling them all to fuck off for ten minutes, there was something of an awed sense of expectation as the headline act took the stage. What The Go! Team delivered was a pretty faithful live rendering of their oh-so-catchy summer-time pop tunes. Two diminutive drummers laid out those driving beats, ably accompanied by a six foot twelve bass player with some highly cultured side-burns who dwarfed the rest of the band. The vocalist and front person, who I believe goes by the moniker Ninja (not biggin’ herself up there then), provided all the lyrics you can hear on the album and more, and took charge of crowd interaction duties admirably, although it has to be said that asking the crowd to shout something typically Liverpudlian was a high risk strategy.
Though the tunes played were all toe-tappingly delightful, with only one half hour album’s worth of material the gig was frustratingly short. The band played pretty much every track off ‘Thunder, Lightning, Strike’ and only one new-y, so that just as you (and they) were getting into the groove it was all over. Aside from the brevity of their performance another downside was that the sound production left a little to be desired, though this could also be said of the sound quality on the album. While putting out a low-budget indie-album that sounds like it was recorded in their ma’s garage might be fine for now, it’s something that will need to be addressed in the future. As a live sound the music came across pretty well but I reckon that recruiting themselves a brass-section to add to the harmonica and the recorder would further enhance the experience.
Overall then, a promising start from a band with bags of potential. If you like the album you’ll enjoy them live. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t end there. Go! Go! Go!