sweatbox

is an easy way to describe Lee's last night for the big show hyped here (and everywhere else) over the past week or so. the room was cool at 9 when we arrived for Ninja High School, but things quickly burned up when they took the stage and frenzied up a somewhat slightly sparse audience on hand. no shortage of enthusiasm, or oranges, on hand though. NHS is 2-D is great, but their in-crowd house shows will likely remain their staple, I would figure.

a quick note on the bar itself, as this was the first show back post-reno style. Lee's is quite different now in terms of layout with an L-shaped bar along the back of the room. the old oval is gone, and though it was often inefficient in terms of execution, I will miss its charm.

maybe it was the cameras that adjusted the feel of the room as well, as a fucking camera CRANE was along the right side of the room, as well as a sightline-obliterating setup by the mix desk, and two men on stage for the entirety of the Go! Team set. all apparently for DVD recordage, and the question quickly arose-who the hell is paying for all of this? we'll find out soon.



and if NHS was a precusor in enthusiasm, Go! quite viciously blew the roof of the room right from the start, with Ninja working the crowd like a seasoned, black female Mick Jagger. Never have so many hands flown around in the air, a thick layer of sweat visible floating up in the big TV lights as the night wore on.

there are some problems though. the sample-heavy material demands playing to a track pretty much at all times, and the distant, layered group vocal sound is shuttered in favour of the much more in-your-face Ninja. this takes some getting used to, as a lot of the wonderful subtle elements of Thunder Lightning Strike are shuttered-but save for adding probably another 4 or 5 people on stage how else can you do it? are 2 drum kits really necessary? some real horns would have been adored.

so it goes. they came and killed, I loved it, but leave room for loving it more down the line.