The Go! Team

EMMA LEE

UEA LCR, Norwich

Quirky Brighton band, the Go! Team, showed on Monday how far they have come since they played at the Waterfront last summer.

Since their debut album Thunder, Lightning, Strike was nominated for the Mercury Music prize, the band - described as the missing link between Sonic Youth and the Jackson Five - has acquired some fancy stage lighting - and, most importantly, confidence by the bucket load.

The show was opened by American duo Smoosh - a band so young they make the Arctic Monkeys, who are barely in their 20s, look like old-timers.

With older sister Asya, 14, on vocals and keyboards and Chloe, 11, on drums, their songs were incredibly sophisticated.

Obviously hugely talented, it is impressive that they have decided against taking the Britney Spears Mickey Mouse Club route to fame - though their teachers might like to know why they weren't in class.

Combining hip-hop samples, school recorders, harmonicas, glockenspiels and rap with indie guitars, the Go! Team are one of the most distinctive and exciting bands around.

And the group's fabulously feisty frontwoman, Ninja, soon got the audience in a party mood.

Their set opened with the exhilarating sugar rush of Panther Dash and included some new tracks with great potential.

The show ended with an encore of the swooning Everyone's A VIP To Someone, which sounds like it should be on the soundtrack to a cowboy movie.

It was followed by an extended version of their best-known track, Ladyflash, during which Ninja showed off her dancing skills.

Inventive and fun, it was the perfect antidote to winter blues.