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THE GO! TEAM
Lights, camera, action!
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"Jump! Jump! 1! 2! 3! 4! Yes! Yes! You’ve got the energy!" chanted Ninja, the go-go dancing mouthpiece of England’s Go! Team, her spitfire sibilance cloaked in a Brighton accent. Around her, the coed, multi-ethnic sextet, clad in visors, sweatbands, and basketball jerseys, kicked up a swirling tempest of sunny psychedelia, buoyed by hip-hop beats, bolstered by hard guitars, and backlit by protean film stock projections. "We want you all squishin’ in and having a good time!" It was Tuesday night a week ago at the Paradise, and the Aussie opening act the Grates had already set an upbeat tone with their stripped-down, bounce-and-smile punk tunes. But the Go! Team upped the ante about as far as an ante could be upped. Their roiling mishmash of action-soundtrack bombast, Day-Glo soul, and cut ’n’ splice hooks actually had people dancing. "This is the first album I’ve bought in three years," said the guy in front of me to his girlfriend, referring to Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Sony). He didn’t say which: the original English version, which came out last September, or the one stripped of its copyrighted samples and released stateside last month. ("Does anyone have the illegal version?" Ninja asked. "You’re criminals, but we love you for having it.") Blaring samples nearly drowned out the eclectic instrumentation as the band powered through "Get it Together," "The Ice Show" (from their self-released Are You Ready for More? EP), "Junior Kickstart," and "The Power Is On." By the time they got to "Panther Dash," a zooming spy-movie theme set to surf guitar and swooning melodica, the stage was exploding with color. "Let’s see what you got! Let’s see your dance moves!" Ninja yelled. The crowd hardly needed prompting.
BY MIKE MILIARD
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