19th of October 2007: Go Team
Before my shift I'm chatting with Travis, a newly arrived resident, who tells me he saw Go Team just a couple of nights ago across town, and they're playing again tonight. I'm electrified - I've been wanting to see The Go! Team in concert for ages and it's serendipitous to get this opportunity now when I had no idea they were even in town.
The Go! Team are an experimental hiphop/funk/indie rock band from Brighton, England who make simple upbeat incredibly catchy tracks with a lot of fuzzy guitar, harmonica and intricate drum work.
They're playing Mezzanine, which is only about ten minutes walk from the hostel, and booked online the ticket is $24.00 - very reasonable indeed. I book my ticket right away and look forward to the evening in anticipation.
I'm at the venue shortly after the doors open at 9pm, and the bands aren't coming on till after ten o'clock, but DJ Amplive is already playing when I arrive and has some great tracks, so it's no trial waiting. I have a beer and a vodka and coke, but don't particularly feel like drinking any more (particularly since drinks are $6.00 each).
The crowd are, predictably, mostly indie kids in standard plumage. On the dance floor this means very little movement whatsoever, mostly people just stand around in little knots and sway a bit. But there's a good crowd gathering and when the opening act come on everyone hustles up to the stage at one end and there's life in the party.
Bodies of Water are supporting, and actually make a pretty good set - lots of close-harmony singing/yelling and 70s hippie rock sounds, with good energy and real heart (and a couple of very impressive moustaches). The crowd are pretty into it, lots of dancing, fist-pumping and cheering throughout. Meanwhile the venue continues to fill up. It's got a 1000 person capacity and there have to be easily 500 people in here already.
Then, after fifteen minutes or so of tuning and preparation of the stage covered by the return of DJ Amplive, The Go! Team arrive on stage in a series of flying leaps out of the shadows, and launch into Panther Dash. The opening chords are near-deafening, the drumbeat electrifying, and the total wall of noise and rhythm lifts me off the floor.
The entire crowd surges forward, ramming the barriers into the edge of the stage (and nearly crushing the cameraman) and a mosh pit forms the likes of which which I never expected to see in a crowd of indie kids - most of the crowd is dancing, jumping up and down, waves of collision spread back and forth across the room, we sway and crash into each other and yell and punch the air and dance and do it again. By now it looks like the club is almost at capacity, looking back over the sea of heads.
The band are amazing, raw-sounding but expert and playing the crowd brilliantly. There are three skinny indie guys (band creator Ian, Sam and Jamie), two Japanese girls (Ky and Kaori) and Ninja, a beautiful black ball of fire in a pink hoodie dress and rainbow kneesocks who absolutely never stops moving, dancing, bouncing, chanting, rapping, singing and exhorting the crowd to greater levels of frenzy.
It takes two burly security guys to keep the barriers from being rammed into the stage throughout the performance, and when Bottle Rocket begins and the whole crowd gets bouncing it feels like the building's going to collapse. The band play a good mixture of songs from their original and new albums, all the classics, and come back on for a double encore before disappearing back into the shadows.
I'm still completely psyched up and full of energy, and a good part of the crowd stick around for DJ Amplive to play out the evening - I dance till 2am, when my feet just won't take it any more and I fade out into the cool night. I walk home on shaking legs, ears ringing, feeling totally spent and utterly at peace.
The Go! Team are an experimental hiphop/funk/indie rock band from Brighton, England who make simple upbeat incredibly catchy tracks with a lot of fuzzy guitar, harmonica and intricate drum work.
They're playing Mezzanine, which is only about ten minutes walk from the hostel, and booked online the ticket is $24.00 - very reasonable indeed. I book my ticket right away and look forward to the evening in anticipation.
I'm at the venue shortly after the doors open at 9pm, and the bands aren't coming on till after ten o'clock, but DJ Amplive is already playing when I arrive and has some great tracks, so it's no trial waiting. I have a beer and a vodka and coke, but don't particularly feel like drinking any more (particularly since drinks are $6.00 each).
The crowd are, predictably, mostly indie kids in standard plumage. On the dance floor this means very little movement whatsoever, mostly people just stand around in little knots and sway a bit. But there's a good crowd gathering and when the opening act come on everyone hustles up to the stage at one end and there's life in the party.
Bodies of Water are supporting, and actually make a pretty good set - lots of close-harmony singing/yelling and 70s hippie rock sounds, with good energy and real heart (and a couple of very impressive moustaches). The crowd are pretty into it, lots of dancing, fist-pumping and cheering throughout. Meanwhile the venue continues to fill up. It's got a 1000 person capacity and there have to be easily 500 people in here already.
Then, after fifteen minutes or so of tuning and preparation of the stage covered by the return of DJ Amplive, The Go! Team arrive on stage in a series of flying leaps out of the shadows, and launch into Panther Dash. The opening chords are near-deafening, the drumbeat electrifying, and the total wall of noise and rhythm lifts me off the floor.
The entire crowd surges forward, ramming the barriers into the edge of the stage (and nearly crushing the cameraman) and a mosh pit forms the likes of which which I never expected to see in a crowd of indie kids - most of the crowd is dancing, jumping up and down, waves of collision spread back and forth across the room, we sway and crash into each other and yell and punch the air and dance and do it again. By now it looks like the club is almost at capacity, looking back over the sea of heads.
The band are amazing, raw-sounding but expert and playing the crowd brilliantly. There are three skinny indie guys (band creator Ian, Sam and Jamie), two Japanese girls (Ky and Kaori) and Ninja, a beautiful black ball of fire in a pink hoodie dress and rainbow kneesocks who absolutely never stops moving, dancing, bouncing, chanting, rapping, singing and exhorting the crowd to greater levels of frenzy.
It takes two burly security guys to keep the barriers from being rammed into the stage throughout the performance, and when Bottle Rocket begins and the whole crowd gets bouncing it feels like the building's going to collapse. The band play a good mixture of songs from their original and new albums, all the classics, and come back on for a double encore before disappearing back into the shadows.
I'm still completely psyched up and full of energy, and a good part of the crowd stick around for DJ Amplive to play out the evening - I dance till 2am, when my feet just won't take it any more and I fade out into the cool night. I walk home on shaking legs, ears ringing, feeling totally spent and utterly at peace.
Labels: Go Team, indie rock, live music, mezzanine, San Francisco
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