tu le chais, clart!

Saw Goldie Lookin' Chain at Le Botanique in Brussels Monday night. A very entertaining show. They played for around an hour and did most of the tracks from Greatest Hits (Guns don't kill people..., Roller disco, 21 ounces, You knows I loves you and Half-man Half-machine being some of the stand outs) as well as selections from their extensive MP3 back catalogue. There were around 120 people in La Rotonde, the nicest of the four music venues at Le Botanique, the cultural center for Brussels's Francophone community, which is situated in a former botanical garden (and still has rock pools with goldfish in the corridors!). It seemed like at least half the crowd were locals (with about a dozen or so Welsh and the remainder other Anglophones). I doubt the Bruxelloises understood many of the words or much of the humour, but then again, a lot of the latter is also lost on anyone who doesn't come from South Wales. There is an extra level of comedic resonance in a line like "Guns don't kill people rappers do, From B&Q to Bristol Zoo" that is only fully appreciated by those who have been on shit day trips across the Severn Bridge to that dismal place (Bristol Zoo not B&Q - you can have a shit day there anywhere in Britain). Having grown up in the Vale of Glamorgan and experienced that day-trip hell, I knows where the GLC is comings from.
Still, if Taxi/Enter the Dragon (about Newport's Dragon Taxis) left most people bemused, the whole audience was grinning along with Shit to me and its deeply irreverent chorus: "J-Lo means shit to me, P. Diddy means shit to me, Ja Rule means shit to me. Fuck you Alicia Keys!" And with 8 guys bouncing around on stage, the 'Chain kept the pace going throughout their set. The show seemed semi-choreographed with everyone stumbling around the stage as they delivered their lines but all punching the air, etc, in unison on the choruses. (As one of my friends observed: "Well they are a boyband!")
The night ended with an encore of the Uk chart smash Your mother's got a penis (surely a Stateside hit with the people who love Beavis and Butthead and South Park, if no-one else).
The band still seem pretty down to earth and a little bemused by their new-found stardom. Thanks for the autograph, Maggot! Whether they are a one-year wonder or, like the Beastie Boys can forge a long-term niche in the alternative mainstream obviously remains to be seen. I suspect the former but would love to be proved wrong.
p.s. For anyone not yet au fait with the GLC's work, check out their website: http://www.youknowsit.co.uk