photos: the go! team at neumo’s
It’s Monday night and the teens of Seattle could use a bath, or at the very least a quick primer on the difference between fresh sweat and stale sweat. Not that any of that really matters once Bodies of Water have concluded their really nice set of what sounds like “hippie church youth group goes on the road as an upbeat rock outfit with costumes to match”. Well, there’s that and a meticulous sound check between the crowd and the Go! Team. And, for the drinkers, a metal fence or a balcony to keep the evils of alcohol to contaminate the brewing dance party up front that’s set off once Ninja joins the rest of the band wearing her knee-high rainbow socks.
Whether it’s assessing our level of devotion (”how many bought our first album? our second? how many just walked in tonight?”), pumping up our self esteem (”everyone’s a v.i.p. somewhere!”), or stealing dance moves from people in the crowd and reflecting them back until everyone’s playing along, or rocking uncopyable moves of her own, Ninja is pretty much a recipe for a good time. It would be easy for a band with such a magnetic personality to let her spend the whole show in the spotlight, but the Go! Team is nothing if not collaborative. It seems like everyone gets a chance to be center stage — whether its for a quiet interlude, a sweet folk-tinged banjo accented breath catcher, or an all-out instrumental prog jam — and the rest of the group rotates to take on different parts as necessary. Of course, the floorboards get the biggest workout when everyone’s working together with the swelling horn samples, the back and forth audience changing, and the full-out chaotic multi-part rhythm assaults. Plus, it’s really hard not to play along with the party when a pretty girl with with a fancy accent tells you that Seattle is their favorite city to play and now it’s time dance.
slideshow after the jump
