The Go! Team face stiff competition for our attention this evening from another “team” of sorts – the English football fraternity, who are providing a major distraction for those of us a soccer-viewing bent, by taking their game to new heights of ineptitude against Croatia. Just a pity one can’t be in two places at once!
So, the Brighton-based group have their work cut out for them, if they are to convince me that I am spending the evening in the right place, witnessing the right spectacle. As it transpires they are comfortably up to the task.
The ’Team have been dismissed, in some quarters, as a gimmicky flash in the pan, who will ultimately prove devoid of real musical depth. My suspicion is that such critics are of the (thoroughly misguided) view that style always comes at the expense of substance, and immediately turn their noses up at anything manicured, contrived, or in possession of a detached cool.
Well, on tonight’s evidence, when they’re operating at full throttle, The Go! Team are a near-perfect marriage of fashion and substance. On the downside, early on the group have an air of studied hipper-than-thou-ness about them – but not long into the show this veneer of boutique-d up cool has well and truly thawed. Plus, lead MC/vocalist Ninja’s rapping is buried too deep in the mix in the mix for my taste.
Those caveats aside, The Go! Team’s sound is wired, varied and brimming with energy: their mish-mash of Beastie Boys-esque, pogo-friendly rap-rock, car-chase horn music and brash guitar noise works like a blast of pure adrenaline and the crowd respond in kind.
In addition to crowd-pleasing hip-hop-flavoured bangers and jittery, electronic-touched punk-pop, the band also treat us to some hazy, vaguely psychedelic instrumental interludes, which provide a welcome comedown from the sustained mood of euphoria. Inevitable ‘Flashlight Fight’ and ‘Ladyflash’ are among thehighlights.
All in all, this spectacle more than a good alternative to watching Steve McClaren gesture impotently from the touchline, brolly in hand. Did I come to the right place? I did indeed.