‘It already feels like I’m at home’, comments Hot Chip guitarist Al Doyle to the sweaty, raving, packed-out crowd at Barrowlands after a spirited opener of Why Make Sense lead single, ‘Huarache Lights’.
And it seems that this scene is home for Hot Chip now; though Hot Chip have taken a step away from the limelight since ‘Ready for the Floor’ and Made in the Dark, the music has since become only less lo-fi, less nerdy and more festival-ready, more clean, more pop.
In this guise, the original image that came with the band, that of nerdy white men orchestrating a tongue-in-cheek appropriation of hip-hop and R&B, (think ‘Keep Fallin’’s ‘give up all you suckers, we the tightest motherfuckers and you never seen this before now’) dissolves into a polished dance act, blinding lights behind them, the bass crisp and enormous.
The big hits are glorious – ‘One Life Stand’, ‘Ready for the Floor’ and early encore ‘Boy From School’ are reconstructed so they’re not so immediately recognisable, Alexis Taylor tinkering with the melodies so they’re more weird and unnerving.
But the effect is such that the choruses jolt you with surprise – and these are choruses that have always been striking for having such simple compassion and emotion at their basis, that’s mixed with the most basic themes of party music: of love, of dancing, of transgression.
The closer, a rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ that segues into LCD Soundsytem’s ‘All My Friends’, is an unlikely pairing of songs – and it’s surprising to close with a song from a band who didn’t achieve any higher level of fame than Hot Chip themselves – but it turns out to be a worthy tribute, and shows Hot Chip still retain a level of invention that sets them apart in their field.
Words: Tony Boardman
Photos: Thomas Ritchie
