It might have been an unseasonably cold and damp Tuesday
evening...I say ‘might’, what I really mean is “Damn it! What’s with the
freakin’ cold...it’s May already...oy vey!!!”...but tonight did more to warm my
cockles (stop sniggering at the back) than a bath in a boiling hot toddy.
First up Phil Gibbs and his band (featuring TemptingRosie’s tip top trumpeter Ewan Whyte!). Phil’s been busily building a name for
himself over the past few months and opener Part Time Lover, a fine slice of
funk driven white boy soul, exceeds all expectations. Most of Phil’s vids
online are solo performances so it’s easy to see he can cut on his own but the
addition of a really great band adds that magical ingredient. I’m a sucker for
brass so Ewan’s trumpet solos were always going to be winner, but the bassist
laid down some particularly sweet reggae grooves too. Niiiice. Playing half a
dozen self penned tracks Phil’s in fine voice tonight (even if he does do that slightly
annoying spl-iii-ttt-iiiii-nnnn-gggg up the words thing that seems to be quite
trendy these days) spinning out some distinctly summertime sounds...and lord
knows we all need some of them right now. An easy going and hugely enjoyable
set.
The older you get the harder it is for music to
really (and I mean really) hit you. Sure, you still love stuff, enjoy listening to
new bands and catching up with the trillion tunes recorded so far but it’s rare
to get that same buzz that you got when you first started to connect with music
in your own sweet way. That’s what makes Team Me so special.
Hailing from Norway (a country with a surprisingly
rich musical landscape) each song practically drips with joy. They’re mini
anthems to love, life and everything in between, carefully crafted to make
audiences throw their hands in the air and go three shades of mental. In fact,
you know what? If God existed (let’s not get into that one today eh?) and made
music I reckon it would sound like Team Me. Seriously. Musically there are
shades of everything from the joyful singalongs and orchestral pop pomp of the
Polyphonic Spree to the indietronica of MGMT and through to more leftfield acts
like Conan Mockasin and Yeasayer, but such comparisons are dumb and lazy (yep,
that’s me), on tonight’s showing I honestly believe Team Me are in a league of
their own right now. Having carefully draped handmade bunting around a stage crammed
full of kit (legend has it that they bought more kit to The Rainbow than any
other band in history) the set exploded into life with Patrick Wolf and Daniel
Johns, three of the most joyful sounding minutes in pop history and somehow got
even better from there on.
Wearing a rather fetching headband (are they back
in?) lead singer Marius – who started the ‘band’ as a solo venture but then had
to quickly recruit other ‘team’ members to play live – is a super cute ball of
energy, frequently losing himself in the music like a man possessed (in a good
way of course...no head spinning and projectile vomiting tonight). Flanked by Uno
(who uses the novel technique of playing his guitar with a violin bow) and
Elida (drafted in to replace the recently departed Synne) they’re a ménage a
pop with that rare ability to get people clapping along without it all feeling
a little self conscious and forced.
Plucking tracks from their essential debut album To
The Treetops! (darn it, even the title’s as adorable as hell) the grins of the
audience grew as wide as lake Mjøsa (that’s Norway’s biggest lake dontcha know...see, who says
the internet’s not educational?) culminating in a mini freakout as fans danced
their socks off at the front. Who can blame them? Stephen Hawking would find it
hard to resist this lot. Saving the best for last the pairing of Show Me (as
low key as Team Me get but still more joyful than a sack full of fluffy pink
kittens) and the frankly life enhancing With My Hands Covering Both Of My Eyes
I Am Too Scared To Have A Look At You Know surely convinced everyone there that
they were watching something truly special. “Mediocre band, perform mediocre
songs for us now” sang Marius climbing off the stage to sing amongst the
converts. The ultimate in humility or throwing down the gauntlet to the rest of
the pop world? Right now I’m too busy bouncing up and down to care...
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