Hot Chip smokin’ in Brisbane, but cover tune steals the show
In a show that wasn’t without its technical difficulties, London’s Hot Chip still wowed their Brisbane audience — and the highlight wasn’t even one of their own songs.
QLD News
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IT’S a good thing Hot Chip have seven musicians on-stage, and almost as many synthesizers.
Mid-song in Brisbane last night the Londoners simultaneously swapped out a guitar amp and made running repairs to a keyboard, scarcely missing a beat — and with the audience hardly noticing.
Keeping the beats from London to Brooklyn
It wasn’t the only glitch of the night. After the band got out of sync on Over and Over, MC Joe Goddard seemed to suggest it had been 14 years since they’d performed it, before saying: “Anyway, on with the program.”
The Fortitude Music Hall was a classy, comfortable fit for the capacity crowd out to hit the floor on a school night.
Alexis Taylor — he of the dreamy falsetto that could give Jimmy Somerville a run for his money — may be the frontman, but Owen Clarke stole the show with his animated keyboard playing, frenetically dancing and prancing throughout the set.
He had regular dance-offs with guitar/bass/keyboardist Al Doyle, who in turn regularly rotated with their bongo/tambourinist.
Meanwhile, Moog-wielding Goddard supplied the witty asides, vocal FX and frequently aped the audience’s “wooo’s”.
Their electro-dance credentials bring inevitable comparisons to everyone from Pet Shop Boys to Daft Punk, but they also share a lineage of electro-rock with the likes of Snap! and Mutemath, keeping it real with regular use of guitar, bass and drums.
“This is an older one that we hope you’ll remember,” Taylor said in introducing Don’t Deny Your Heart, which had three of them slinging on guitars and bass for the final instrumental break.
A drumsticks-wielding Taylor led the audience clap to kick off Flutes.
While punters tend to like old stuff better than new stuff, one of the audience favourites was highly danceable second-latest single Melody of Love, whose sampled preacher interlude had people’s hands in the air like they just didn’t care.
It’s inevitable with music that’s dependent on the studio for its most impressive effects, that some of the impact would be lost in translation to the live setting, as evidenced on the likes of newer track Spell.
.@Hot_Chip was really good - pretty proud little brisbane has such a cutting edge venue in the fortitude for them to play at pic.twitter.com/6tSKvLDfER
— Jack (@francisruminent) March 4, 2020
But this was more than made up for by the sheer energy and engagement of a live performance.
For the highly anticipated encore the band strolled out casually, drinks in hand.
And as killer as Hot Chip’s own music is — there were many omissions just as worthy as the setlist’s final cut — it was their blistering encore of Beastie Boys’ Sabotage that was arguably the showstopper.
Then Taylor finally shed his jacket for aptly titled finale I Feel Better.
“You really excelled yourself with that one,” Goddard enthused about the audience’s dance moves.
“Just at the last minute you pulled it out of the bag.
“Did you plan that — like a flash mob?”
When it was all over and the rest of the band had exited the stage, Taylor casually picked up his beer and jacket, saluted the crowd and strolled off again.
Setlist: Huarache Lights, One Life Stand, Night and Day, Bath Full of Ecstasy, Don’t Deny Your Heart, Flutes, Hungry Child, And I Was a Boy From School, Spell, Positive, Over and Over, Melody of Love, Ready For the Floor. Encore: Sabotage (Beastie Boys cover), I Feel Better.
* Hot Chip play Enmore Theatre (Sydney) March 6, The Forum (Melbourne) March 7 and Golden Plains Festival (Meredith, Vic) March 8
Originally published as Hot Chip smokin’ in Brisbane, but cover tune steals the show