The Upstate Life

Friday, April 18, 2008

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

We did somewhat of a U Street crawl before seeing Hot Chip's excellent show last Friday night. We grabbed dinner at the recently opened Ulah Bistro after missing our reservation at Marvin by a solid 45 minutes, oh well. Regardless, it was a great meal and the ground tuna burger was pretty damn tasty. Afterwards, we grabbed a drink at the rooftop at nearby Tabaq. I've never been there before but the view from the deck is amazing despite the incessant amount of stairs one has to climb to get there. From there, we were going to head over to the club but perfectly timed ourselves to fall prey to an instant downpour. We sought refuge at Solly's where I was able to enjoy some immediate jukebox selections (Lupe Fiasco - "Superstar", Justice - "DVNO", We Are Scientists - "That's What Counts") while standing in my water-logged shoes. No queue FTMFW!

We made our way to the club a few minutes before Hot Chip went on and was able to land a solid viewing position despite the sold out crowd. I've always wanted to see these guys live and it was by far one of the most enjoyable shows I've seen this year. Then again, I haven't really seen a lot of concerts the last few months but these guys blew me away. In fact, I was more impressed with the crowd. It was one of the most lively and energetic DC audiences I've seen in quite some time (though I read the Justice show was nuts). The band's rendition of "Hold On" was probably the highlight of the night. I really appreciated how they varied the rhythm and lyric delivery (ie - "I'm only going to heaven") of the song and it sounded fantastic.

I was curious how Hot Chip was going to sound live with so many studio electronic sounds but these guys really hit it out of the park. All the songs from Made in the Dark translated incredibly well onstage, and even though we didn't get to hear "Colours", it was a great show. I tried to request "My Piano" from their DJ Kicks album but that probably would've been impossible to perform unless they had a sample of Tom Ze's "Cademar" handy. Oh well. The band said they'll be back later this year so that pretty much guarantees a spot at Virgin Fest, but we won't know for sure until next week. Regardless, it was a great show and I would definitely see them next time they're in town, or at a festival, maybe in Baltimore per se?

Posted by Brett at 12:37 PM |