The Go! Team

Wednesday 9th February, The Cambridge Junction, £12.

[rating: 4.5/5]

Now touring the world to promote their critically acclaimed third album Rolling Blackouts, it seems like 2011 has already proven to be a great year for The Go! Team. Known for their unique blend of indie and old school hip-hop, the sextet made a quick stop in Cambridge where they treated the local scenesters to a non-stop dance fest.

Supporting The Go! Team was Banjo or Freakout, an indie/electronic project by Alessio Natalizia. It was an intriguing performance as Alessio recorded loops and samples using pedals, interlarding distorted sounds with snippets of vocals. Although it was slightly repetitive at times, the complex, percussion-heavy outro suggested there was more to Banjo or Freakout than just the usual support band. After a little bit of funky background music to get the audience in the mood for what was going to be an electrifying night, it was time for The Go! Team to take to the stage.

Kick-starting the show was T.O.R.N.A.D.O. from the new album; a veritable tornado of ’70s American cop show theme tunes. ‘I want to see some booty-shaking’ shouted MC Ninja as she danced and high-kicked across the stage, spitting out the lyrics to Grip Like A Vice. Attitude, confidence- she stole the show with her dazzling energy, whipping up hipster hysteria. To allow the audience to calm down (as well as Ninja), it was time for Chi Fukami Taylor and Kaori Tsuchida to shine with their twee solo numbers, which were warmly received. A couple of instrumentals from their previous albums provided a nice variation in the set, although one particular instrumental was completely out-of-time, resulting in an exchange of confused looks amongst the band members. Apart from this small glitch, Ninja brought it back with The Go! Team classics, such as Huddle Formation and Ladyflash: the crowds were ecstatic.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jlg3oBLkf4

Despite their third album being released less than two weeks earlier, the new material was quickly embraced. We were even treated to an exclusive performance of Back Like 8 Track, which had never been tried before for an audience. In all, it was a well constructed set that kept everyone in a continual state of groove. It even made an old age pensioner take off his shirt, revealing a rather hairy beer belly (no kidding, it was stomach-churning stuff). ‘I want to see your sweat patches’ screamed Ninja for the encore, finishing with Apollo Throwdown and Keys To The City. It was a terrific night, and would highly recommend catching them on tour.