The Upstate Life

Monday, March 14, 2005

TUL's Take: Hot Hot Heat @ 9:30 Club

Friday night's bill appeared to be one of the best on paper The Upstate Life has seen in quite some time. Local act Washington Social Club, up and comers Louis XIV, and headliner Hot Hot Heat performed at the 9:30 Club for what was to be a very late, very fun show. Hell, even the DJ played some great songs between sets to keep The Upstate Life entertained. Anyone that spins both The Fever ("Ladyfingers" is a great track) and LCD Soundsystem gets much respect from The Upstate Life. One thing that I instantly noticed when we made our way onto the floor was how young the audience was. We were a few rows from the front of the stage and were swarmed by kids donned in their respective high school sweatshirts. Things became a lot more evident once I was cognizant of the fact that I was the only person within a good 10 feet radius possessing an alcoholic beverage (Stella, of course). Have Hot Hot Heat penetrated the teenybopper demographic? Isn't the Backstreet Boys show a few weeks from now? No wonder it was so easy to get a drink at the bar.

We arrived a little over five minutes into Washington Social Club's set and TUL has to admit, I wish I was there as soon as the band went on as they proved to be one of the best openers The Upstate Life has encountered throughout the many shows I've attended. When we entered the club, I was instantly overwhelmed by how packed the place was since we were only moments into the first of the three acts performing that evening. It pretty much seemed that the sold out crowd was already in attendance, and after watching WSC's act, I could definitely see why this was the case. Not only have I never seen them live before, but this was also my first time hearing their music period, but it turned out that they effortlessly impressed me on both accounts. In fact, we enjoyed it so much it prompted R to buy their album yesterday which, amazingly, was available off of the iTunes store for a reasonable $9.99. The band uses catchy hooks with some great harmonic vocals that combine to make a very tight pop-punk sound, sort of like Ted Leo meets Pretty Girls Make Graves meets The Pixies. The crowd was feeding off of the band's energy the entire time. I've literally never seen so many people into an opening band so much as when Washington Social Club took that stage. Well done.

Unfortunately, the liveliness of the crowd was bound to decrease some point in the night, and the sole responsibility of that decline easily rested on Louis XIV's shoulders. Essentially, Louis XIV sounds like a more talented version of Jet, but I guess that doesn't really speak volumes now, does it? This group pretty much sucked any energy WSC injected into the building earlier that night and turned it into an uninspiring thirty minute set that forced to me glance at my watch at least six if not eighteen times. TUL had mixed feelings about this band before seeing them live, but after witnessing Louis XIV perform uninspiring rawk song after rawk song, it made me question why bands like this are signed onto a major label and who the A&R knuckleheads are that signed them thinking they'll bring the company a nice chunk of change when your lead singer is a somewhat overweight dude donning a leather jacket belting into the mic how he's going to score with this chick while screwing another. Maybe that's their shtick but I just don't get it. They closed out their set with "Finding Out True Love Is Blind", yielding some cheer from the crowd. I'm not sure if it was because they were performing their modestly-known single or if that was the last we'd hear from them that night.

Roughly a little over midnight, Hot Hot Heat finally took the stage and we were treated to about sixty minutes of gratifying, Canadian dance-pop punk. The kiddies were giddy with excitement for this one, shrieking whenever Steve came close to them and trying to grace his newly-established fro with their hands whenever he leaned into the crowd. All sarcasm aside (wow, that's a rarity coming from TUL and all), the band sounded great and put forth a highly energetic set. They opened with "Talk" and followed up with their excellent new single, "Goodnight, Goodnight". The setlist was primarily comprised of material from Make Up The Breakdown and their forthcoming LP, Elevator. This was the first time (besides "Goodnight, Goodnight", obvs) that I had heard any of their new songs and I really enjoyed how each one of them particularly sounded. I'm definitely looking forward to acquiring Elevator once it comes out after experiencing some of the new tracks live on Friday. HHH also managed to throw in an honestly decent cover of The Futureheads "Decent Days And Nights" which really got TUL moving on the floor, only later realizing, sadly, that most people in the young crowd around us were somewhat bewildered to who the artist the band was covering. Overall, despite the few annoying youths in attendance and Louis XIV's entire performance, it was a great show and can't wait until Elevator is released. And now, I leave you with some altered, and I guess fabricated quotes that could've been heard at the 9:30 Friday night:

"OMG, this band is like the best you guys! BFF!!!"

"Stacy, I'm sooo gonna text Seth and tell him you touched Steve's hair. He's gonna flip!"

"Yo, who are The Futureheads?"

"Ew, that girl is wearing glowsticks. That's sooo 1999." (Btw, there were actually two girls wearing glowsticks, one of which had one in their mouth. What the hell is this, a fucking rave?)

Posted by Brett at 2:01 PM |