The video opens with Danny Watson. Forget the distant future where Goodnight Nurse’s lead singer wins a Grammy. All that matters it that it’s 2004 and Danny Watson is in the “Taking Over” music video.
At the peak of his ponytail phase, he plays a suburban dad who’s off for a weekend away with the suburban mum. They leave their teenage daughter home alone. Will she enjoy a quiet weekend? Of course not. Her punk-arse mates in Goodnight Nurse will come over and throw a massive party.
Soon the band set up and a large number of partygoers show up at the door, including a pizza guy, nurses, a mime artist, and Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury. Yeah, pretty much everything you need for a bangin’ time.
Goodnight Nurse prove themselves capable of rocking the house, and it’s perhaps more effective to have a small living room full of people rocking to some punk-pop, rather than trying to fake it with an actual performance venue.
The music video based around a crazy house party is nothing new (Loves Ugly Children used the concept for “Sixpack”), but the trope pretty much demands some sort of payoff at the end. But disappointingly, we don’t get a return visit from Danny Watson. Instead there’s a generic morning-after shot involving one of the partygoers sneaking out. The only way that could be more boring is if we were shown the remaining party guests cleaning up.
Best bit: the awkward camera angle that makes Danny Watson’s daughter look more than a head taller than her him.
Director: Ivan Slavov
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… the Luck bus.