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We've written at length about England's The Go! Team and their fantastic live shows. The last time they were in town, they drove the Black Cat crowd into a frenzy, and now they'll be doing the same thing at the 9:30 Club tonight for a late show (10 p.m. doors).
We recently spoke to Ninja, the band's energetic female MC who serves as the live show's focal point, on the phone from Los Angeles where the band was doing press. The band is touring behind their just-released second album, Proof of Youth, which musically matches their fantastic first, Thunder, Lightning, Strike — same playground chants, old school hip hop call-outs, sample-frenzied music, and twin drummer cacophony. And that's just what they were going for again.
"I’m not sure were were trying to to accomplish anything [with this album]," said Ninja. "We have something in common, we enjoy the music we do and we enjoy putting it all together. It’s almost a continuation of the first album, but with more guests instead of samples. It’s more of the same, 60’s, noisy guitar, girl group."
The sound mix is the same as the first album as well, meaning that Ninja's forceful vocals are often hidden by the surrounding noise. "There’s still loads of distortion," she said. "It’s not meant to be finished or polished. It’s kind of a kids’ chorus, we like that." Live, however, Ninja is the leader, bouncing around and getting the crowd excited while the band rumbles behind her.
And converting the sound from the album to a live show can be daunting. "Someone who is doing it for the first time would have a heart attack or go crazy, but we’re used it it — chaotic, fast, messy, crazy," she said. "There are a million channels, we put everything into it. It’s exciting and we watch the crowd getting involved, getting crazy and sweaty."
The second album was also made differently. Thunder, Lightning, Strike was mostly created by Ian Parton in his parents' home in Brighton, England, and he then assembled a band to play the album live, including Ninja. "The first Ian did in his spare time, and this time we had 6 months – no touring, no nothing. The band was holed up in the studio doing vocals and bass," Ninja said. "We had time dedicated to do background on the samples, so we won’t get in trouble." The trouble Ninja's referring to was due to differing copyright laws in the U.K. and the U.S., which led the band to delay the Thunder, Lightning, Strike's American release and remixing some tracks due to sample clearance issues.
As part of that, Proof of Youth has more guest appearances, including Chuck D, Marina Ribatski from Bonde do Role (who we also spoke with earlier this year), and Silver Spring's Rappers Delight Club, a group of kids who rap over indie songs. And even with more guests, the album reflected the band's music and and the Internet age in the way it was put together. "We really didn’t work with them, a lot was over the Internet or Ian flew out to meet people. It’s not like the whole band is jamming, it’s more cut and paste. We’re not like Coldplay or something, sitting around playing guitar."
And much like the music is put together in a cut and paste fashion, so is the band. They're often labeled as part of the Brighton music scene, which includes Fatboy Slim, The Kooks, British Sea Power and The Pipettes, but Ninja disputes that. "I don’t consider us a Brighton band, we’re from all different places – Japan, London, Brighton." Ninja is from London, Parton from Brighton, and guitarist Kaori Tsuchida and drummer Chi Fukami Taylor from Japan.
The Go! Team play tonight at the 9:30 Club with opener DJ Will Eastman. Tickets are $15.
First photo by Flickr user tlobf, used under a Creative Commons license. Second photo by Nicole Blommers, used under a Creative Commons license.
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The show was really invigorating and fun. It's rare you see people in DC -actually- dancing at a show (effing squares). Ninja is great at engaging the audience - we were all totally pulling our cheesiest dance moves! w00t.
PS - Our crowd was sooo much cooler than the peeps who showed up for the earlier Jimmy Eat World show...