1. Disappointment
2. Whig Party
3. Indie Pop 冚家剷
4. Nic Fit
5. Faulty Plumbing
6. Landlord
The Underground stages welcome all kinds of wonderful freaks and weirdos, but no one at Heavy 17 had prepared themselves for the utter mayhem of GoGo Monster. The masked three-piece tramped onstage wearing DIY-“bloodstained” shirts and dad shoes, and the crowd began wondering how a band with no guitar could possibly meld into a Heavy night. The tag shock rock wouldn’t quite cut it for a group that blends peculiar performance art techniques with outsider music, punk, jazz and metal.
“We’ve come to rock all you mother-fuckers!” roared singer/wind instrument player Callum MacKenzie as the band launched into Disappointment, a discordant melding of punk bass and shrieking flute. Second song Whigs was introduced as “about something dear to my heart … wigs!” The singer then entered into a macabre monologue about how he makes wigs for a living, while he held the mic like a clarinet. His words mixed with flute echoes from his looper pedal, before he shouted “she’s screaming” over and over to finish the song.
Indie Pop mixed a Native American war chant melody with squawking sax and strummed bass, before ode to smoking Nic Fit extolled the virtues of nicotine. It was the kind of jangling cacophony David Byrne would have been proud of. Faulty Plumbing, a song “about how your plumbing gets fucked up”, struck a chord with the audience as the lyrical style moved more towards surreal ranting instead of incoherent freak-out. MacKenzie’s delivery became increasingly demented as he sang, “hair in my pipes, coming back up again” to Blue Kwok’s Faith No More drums. While jumping around like a jackalope, MacKenzie tried to leap off the stage and hit his head on one of the speakers suspended from the ceiling, releasing a shower of dust and causing a sharp intake of breath from the room. Thankfully, he carried on bouncing.
The crowd particularly got on board with the sentiment of final song Landlord, aka, “Someone special and dear to our hearts who’d do anything for us.” If The Shaggs had a flute, they still wouldn’t have been anywhere near as inharmonious or hilarious. Flutey squeaks and a Pixies bassline slowed into a reverb-laden crescendo finale. Weird, disturbing, but ultimately a big pile of fun.
– El Jay
GoGo Monster一開波時已經申報利益：佢地唔算得上係樂隊，而係為觀眾帶黎視覺藝術表演嘅組合。萬聖節已經過咗四日，但係三個人好似啱啱從派對走出黎，戴上面罩、成身都係血。佢地攜帶嘅樂器竟然只得鼓、低音結他、同埋長笛以及色士風，吹笛嘅主音Callum彷彿有少少Peter Gabriel嘅身影。
「歌曲」呢個概念並唔太適用於GoGo Monster，筆者真係聽唔出佢地玩咗六首歌。嚴格黎講，主音Callum係亂嗡講咗六段唔太正經嘅故事（題材包括通渠佬、剃頭髮），中間穿插一段又一段嘅音樂。但係其實，佢地三個都係從音樂學校畢業，喺演奏方面好有經驗。佢地嘅風格可以形容為受到龐克同埋迷幻影響嘅即興爵士樂，速度快、氣氛激烈，長笛同低音結他不時撞音，而鼓手Blue直程係打咗連續三十分鐘嘅solo，技術過人。在場好多觀眾都冇諗過音樂可以咁玩，包括筆者。
– Elson Tong
