Hot Chip, Growing live!
Hot Chip, Growing
Metro, Chicago
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Who knew five pasty British guys armed with synthesizers could put on the year’s best rock show? On Sunday night, the first of a two-night Metro stand, Hot Chip egged on a libido-soaked crowd until the band’s angular, repetitive “Bendable Poseable” served to characterize the frenzied movements erupting inside the cramped venue.
Starting strongly with the clanging “One Pure Thought” and never dropping below a Rocky Balboa-in-training level throughout a 90-minute set, the quintet (plus Leo Taylor on drums) plowed through the peppier numbers from Made In The Dark (DFA/EMI). This is the electro pop band’s second go-around through the States since the album’s release last February, and the material effervescently comes to life on stage thanks to Al Doyle’s sawing electric guitar.
On disc, “Shake A Fist” suffers from canned electronica overload and a cheeky Todd Rundgren voice-over, but live, the ’70s studio wizard gets thrown under the bus to make way for a balls-out cyclone of rock ‘n’ roll, albeit with a disco beat as indelible as anything the Bee Gees recorded.
The unlikeliest of frontmen, Alexis Taylor awkwardly skulks between electric guitar and keyboards while crooning in a falsetto just begging for an additional Gibb reference. Dressed in a white, parachute jumpsuit, Taylor seems aimed at taking on Radiohead’s Thom Yorke in a “Celebrity Deathmatch” on the wistful “Alley Cats,” a new tune set for an impending fourth full-length.
Taylor’s foil, Joe Goddard, mechanically ran down a litany of Hulk Hogan-inspired moves on the instantly catchy and sardonic “Wrestlers,” and infused blue-eyed soul set-closer, “In The Privacy Of Our Love” with backing vocals worthy of “Chain Of Fools.” Goddard, Doyle, and Taylor convened in a percussion circle to breakdown an intense “Hold On,” leading into a Slash-influenced “Over And Over” from 2006’s The Warning (Astralwerks).
Hot Chip’s energy and nerd-chic pizzazz culminated in “Ready For The Floor.” Giant, white balloons bobbed past outstretched hands while synth master Felix Martin imbibed Made In The Dark‘s signature tune with its bouncing luster.
The assaulting sounds of openers Growing threatened to clear the floor of Hot Chip fans. During a 40-minute experiment, the band purposely forwent any melodic structure in favor of eardrum-beating loudness. The boys from Hot Chip stood in awe at the feet of Kevin Doria and Joe Denardo, clearly pleased to share billing with the Brooklyn-based duo, but this brand of guitar distortion and manipulation belongs with the rest of the pot-banging preschoolers.
— Janine Schaults
Category: Live Reviews, Weekly
