Mansfield Traquair, Edinburgh
3 stars
When The Go! Team’s hyperactive chanteuse and cheerleader-in-chief Ninja uses a red feather boa as a skipping rope at the end of the band’s set, it’s a perfect Go! Team moment. The Brighton based troupe’s debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike was a hyperactive cut n’ paste sugar-rush of playground anthems acquired from Charlie Brown cartoons and low attention-span party tunes thrown into its kitchen-sink mix.
In the flesh, the band that began life in guitarist Ian Parton’s bedroom, where Thunder, Lightning, Strike, was recorded, look like they’ve stepped straight out of an estuary-styled version of Sesame Street. Multi-cultural, multi-instrumentalist and multi-tasking, the 6-piece are a retro sound-clash riot of 70s grooves and kindergarten show tunes.
It’s a fine climax to this Smirnoff sponsored evening of Electric Cabaret, a series of shows aiming to mix and match a live light entertainment experience with weekend clubbing. With the venue formerly known as Café Graffiti somewhat self-consciously kitted out with peacock-feathered showgirls and a stage dressed up with an ornate off-kilter picture frame, we’re treated to Hula-Hooping, a human beatbox, Can-Can girls, a lady who makes sparks fly with an angle-grinder and a man who steps into a giant balloon.
What’s missing here beyond novelty value is any sense of intimacy. Where Edinburgh’s own cabaret emporiums, from Silencio to the ACME Workers Club and the just-founded Neue Liebe club, understand that small is beautiful, the atmosphere here falls somewhere between a Fresher’s ball and the Edinburgh Fringe.
The Go! Team thrive on such a mish-mash, taking on the venue’s muddy acoustics to preview new material even more over-excited than the old stuff, and ideal music to skip to, feather boas at the ready.
The Herald, April 23rd 2007
ends
3 stars
When The Go! Team’s hyperactive chanteuse and cheerleader-in-chief Ninja uses a red feather boa as a skipping rope at the end of the band’s set, it’s a perfect Go! Team moment. The Brighton based troupe’s debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike was a hyperactive cut n’ paste sugar-rush of playground anthems acquired from Charlie Brown cartoons and low attention-span party tunes thrown into its kitchen-sink mix.
In the flesh, the band that began life in guitarist Ian Parton’s bedroom, where Thunder, Lightning, Strike, was recorded, look like they’ve stepped straight out of an estuary-styled version of Sesame Street. Multi-cultural, multi-instrumentalist and multi-tasking, the 6-piece are a retro sound-clash riot of 70s grooves and kindergarten show tunes.
It’s a fine climax to this Smirnoff sponsored evening of Electric Cabaret, a series of shows aiming to mix and match a live light entertainment experience with weekend clubbing. With the venue formerly known as Café Graffiti somewhat self-consciously kitted out with peacock-feathered showgirls and a stage dressed up with an ornate off-kilter picture frame, we’re treated to Hula-Hooping, a human beatbox, Can-Can girls, a lady who makes sparks fly with an angle-grinder and a man who steps into a giant balloon.
What’s missing here beyond novelty value is any sense of intimacy. Where Edinburgh’s own cabaret emporiums, from Silencio to the ACME Workers Club and the just-founded Neue Liebe club, understand that small is beautiful, the atmosphere here falls somewhere between a Fresher’s ball and the Edinburgh Fringe.
The Go! Team thrive on such a mish-mash, taking on the venue’s muddy acoustics to preview new material even more over-excited than the old stuff, and ideal music to skip to, feather boas at the ready.
The Herald, April 23rd 2007
ends
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