The Cat Empire @ George Square Theatre
This may be a sleepy lecture hall by day, but The Cat Empire make dancing girls go wild by night
| 14 Aug 2006
It's quarter to midnight and the Ross Irwin Soul Special seem to have done a great job in usurping their headliners: red-hot Aussie stank, rabid sax solos, and the viewing rabble - uneasily jammed between the low stage and the lecture theatre's front-row seats - are well and truly roused. It's not an ideal venue for what turns out to be the world's greatest party-starters, when what the young crowd want, clad in Fisherman's hats and shorts, dreadlocked and pashmina'd, is a Glastonbury field - or at least a small, sweat-drenched club.
Never mind, for this 90 minutes of extended funk jams, scratching, rapping and blistering solos will sway the heaviest hips and spread the tightest of lips. I thought Ross Irwin had rabble-roused, but the full Empire have whipped up a frenzy of giggling, grooving, swaying, bubbling, twisting, screaming, laughing, singing zealots like I've never seen before. This may be a sleepy lecture hall by day, but dancing girls go wild by night. Sol Y Sombra is dipped in NuYorican Latin funk, and The Rhythm trumpets the grooviest hook before moving into Brazilian bossa nova effortlessly. Empire's core 6-piece have been joined by a trio of horn-players who bop, sway and coo in unison like old Motown backers; it's shameless - no pretension, preening, or posing, just sheer positivity; no agenda, just togetherness, community, and celebration. Forget the UN, they just talk, in different languages. Music needs no translation, and dancing, every tribe does it; this must be the way. If music could unite the world, this would be an Empire free of hate. [Ally Brown]
Never mind, for this 90 minutes of extended funk jams, scratching, rapping and blistering solos will sway the heaviest hips and spread the tightest of lips. I thought Ross Irwin had rabble-roused, but the full Empire have whipped up a frenzy of giggling, grooving, swaying, bubbling, twisting, screaming, laughing, singing zealots like I've never seen before. This may be a sleepy lecture hall by day, but dancing girls go wild by night. Sol Y Sombra is dipped in NuYorican Latin funk, and The Rhythm trumpets the grooviest hook before moving into Brazilian bossa nova effortlessly. Empire's core 6-piece have been joined by a trio of horn-players who bop, sway and coo in unison like old Motown backers; it's shameless - no pretension, preening, or posing, just sheer positivity; no agenda, just togetherness, community, and celebration. Forget the UN, they just talk, in different languages. Music needs no translation, and dancing, every tribe does it; this must be the way. If music could unite the world, this would be an Empire free of hate. [Ally Brown]