Saw them last night. I hadn't seen them since 2010, when they played with LCD Soundsystem. But that night was pretty much all about LCD, so I was really, really fucking excited. Miss them on their last time through in 2013 because I went to see Beach House instead. Thank goodness they keep Flutes in the set.
They all walk out on stage at a small nightclub venue and it is a sight for sore eyes. Part of the reason I love Hot Chip so fucking much is because they are all such average dudes - except for Sarah Jones, who is their drummer, and she fucking absolutely slays. Holy hell - Alexis is about 50cm tall, hunched over and bespectacled. Joe Goddard is a giant, also hunched over, a bit overweight and actually seems a bit shy. It's actually Al Doyle who does most of the chit-chat, and he just wears a white kimono-lookin thing the whole time, beaming with a big smile, with balding red hair.
They open up with Huarache Lights, which is a great song, a terrific opener and a good banger. The auto-tune bits are heaps of fun. Stomping tune. That's followed by One Life Stand, good single that had the crowd singing along nice and early. I dragged my girlfriend along and she was enraptured; thanked me heaps, said it was the best thing she'd ever seen (though her experience before she met me was limited to one Aqua gig). Recognised this song. Up next was Night & Day, which I've never been big on, I'd have taken 50 other Hot Chip songs over it but it's a tune and was over pretty quick. Good to dance to. Heavier, more truncated and faster than the album version. THat was followed by Love is the Future. I thought it was kind of quaint that it features a Posdnuos verse; the only band I've seen at this venue was De La Soul. They cut that verse though. The song sounds good live.
Up next ... Flutes. My FUCKING GOD. I don't care who you are, if you don't like that song, you don't have a fucking pulse. It is a FUCKING MONSTER. It is perfectly crafted, the intro especially, with the way each beat/drumbeat/guitar part comes in bar by bar. It's fun to watch live too cos Al, Alexis and some other dude all turn 90 degrees at the end of all the "work that inside outside work that" lines. But yeah, it is fucking racuous. I was losing my fucking mind dancing to it, I was a ball of sweat by the end. Anyone else here experienced it live? A couple of years ago Inte said it was in his top experiences live EVER and I have to agree, it was right up there. Holy shit. Then they followed it with Over & OVer and I very nearly passed out.
Started Right and Need You Now were up next (although I just looked at their Sydney setlist and the fucking cunts got Alley Cats as well, one of my fav HC songs, and we didn't
we got Easy to Get, though, which I also really like) and my girlfriend started dancing all sexy and it was hot as. All great tunes, Need You Now sounded different live and was great, although probably better on record. (Al's bass was super loud the whole night, which was great for most of it but meant on songs like Need You Now and Boy From School you couldn't hear the beat as well.) Ready for the Floor and I Feel Better closed the main set and by this point they had whipped the crowd into a massive, massive frenzy. It was insane. Loud as shit, hands everywhere, everyone sweating like crazy, the band were obviously very impressed by it, perhaps even a little surprised. It was why I was surprised they started the encore with Look at Where We Are, as the energy in the room was phenomenal, and would have been better served by a banger. (I was actually expecting them to just do Dancing in the Dark, or Boy From School/Dancing in the Dark, but it was a four-song encore.) Boy From School ruled, again it's better on record but it still stomps live, the first drop is fucking mad. Let Me Be Him was the penultimate song, one I had forgotten about, but worked really well, it's got that feel of a "night's almost over" song, particularly with the oh oh ohhhh oh part.
Then came the finish. I figured Flutes would be the highlight, and it certainly was, until this finish. If Hot Chip come near you, go and see them. Watching the tight-knit band all playing near each other as they rip through this song is spellbinding and they've struck upon something very, very special. They are certainly without doubt at the very top of their game live, and I think this cover takes them from "fucking awesome" into "something special" territory. The lights, the sheer noise, the crowd jumping and fist pumping and singing and screaming and cheering. Sarah going fucking nuts on the drums (she stands up and does a count-in beforehand).
And I tell you what... if there is a better way to start 2016 than watching a now-reunited LCD Soundsystem's sister band paying tribute to their best song... then I'd love to hear it. I'll fight you, because you won't win. It was a fucking tremendous show and everything I was hoping it would be.
