The Go! Team – ‘Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Live at the Roundhouse)’ – Review

What does The Go! Team sound like?

An explosive cocktail of bombastic drums, guitars, brass, soul, rap, and rock… all wrapped up in nursery rhyme sweetness.

The review of ‘Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Live at the Roundhouse)’ by The Go! Team

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, The Go! Team’s superb album ‘Thunder, Lightning, Strike’ sounds as fresh today as it did on release. The low-fi recording, the street-wise sass, the chaotic veers from anthemic rock to sweet vintage funk pop and everything in between, it all holds up. There wasn’t anything quite like it then, and there isn’t anyone like it now.

Performing at London’s Roundhouse, The Go! Team perform the entire album front to back before bringing along other classics from their catalogue. I was intrigued to hear how such a stylised recording translated into live performance, and it works a treat. The live drums and vocals are slightly crisper, whilst the guitars have plenty of fuzz to bring an edge to it. The brass takes on a more visceral sound in the live performance. For example, the bridge of ‘The Power Is On’ leans into the brass freaking out with bass bellows to up the chaos. The brass and guitars feel alive and grungy, and whilst the blown-out timbre is present in the live recording as it was in the original, this live recording feels wider.

That doesn’t stop the playground energy from spilling out. The recorders and xylophones of ‘Get it Together’ are loud and proud. They sound like they’re played live, but I’d imagine some of the more funky and soul elements of the music were samples. The keyboard piano has a bluesy honky-tonk chorus effect applied to it, which makes tracks like ‘We Just Won’t Be Defeated’ sound whimsical and squishy. When the guitars are needed, they crash in with visceral walls of noise on ‘Junior Kickstart’ and ‘Huddle Formation’.

Alongside the full album, seven bonus tracks are included. ‘Whammy-O’ is playful funk rap that showcases pointed, rhythmic vocals at its finest. In a live performance characterised by hollow noise, this track removes most of the reverb and hits it hard. ‘Mayday’ is a sweet 70’s psychedelic brass rock beauty that lands like a party live. ‘Grip Like A Vice’ and ‘Rolling Blackouts’ work as a superb pair of rock tracks that complement each other well as fluid grooves. ‘T.O.R.N.A.D.O’ is a gratuitous balls-out explosion of drums, vocals, and guttural trumpets that feels elevated in a live performance because of its dissonant brass chords. That leaves two uptempo anthems to round off the set. ‘Keys to the City’ is a quintessential The Go! Team track that packs everything they do into three and a half minutes of catchy riffs. ‘Apollo Throwdown’ is a crowd-pleasing disco rock finale.

Fans of the band should run, not walk, to grab this release immediately. It is bombastic and full of energy. The performances are spot on and pitch-perfect, but the audio setup is different enough to make it feel like a fresh take on a 20-year-old album. Part of that is due to how the original production sounds, embracing vintage soul and crunchy rock. Part of it is down to how slick and effortless The Go! Team perform on stage. All of it is down to releasing a timeless classic album that lives on with a new lease of life with this excellent live album.

Recommended track: The Power is On

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