Hot Chip's Next Wave Sound Sweeps up Sold Out First Ave

My first roommate in California plastered our dorm room with pictures of Jarvis Cocker. "A Different Class" played on a loop that year, and we took every opportunity to go dancing at a San Francisco disco that played Brit Pop for the underage. We had so much fun those Thursday nights, singing along with the eyelinered cool to the NME-coined "New Wave of New Wave". Nearly 10 years later, I really wished Vivien was with me last Friday at First Avenue.

The evening started with an interview with Felix Martin and dreamy Owen Clarke of Hot Chip. We played "pass the microphone with Leif and AliRose" after their sound check, and talked about sticky weather, wrestling and fitting into a genre. They were super nice. After some Jameson and Pad Thai, I looked forward to their set.

The duo Free Blood from Brooklyn, New York, opened the festivities. Madeline & John had been sitting two tables away from me at a Thai place downtown before the show, and my friends openly mocked John's sweet airbrushed Mexican wrestler sweatshirt. I thought it was awesome, but as I am realizing, Minnesota is slow to the irony. Thankfully, he chose to wear the sweatshirt onstage, which provided enough spectacle to keep me awake. They turned out to be one of those laptop bands that plug in and play a cross between Momus and Cannibal Corpse. The crowd, made up of a quarter aging singles, half American Appareled MCAD students, a quarter frat boys, and one Fox 9 investigator, liked them, but not enough to make the sold out First Avenue full of energy. Al Doyle from Hot Chip, who also plays with LCD Soundsystem, played his guitar on a couple of songs, breaking up the computer music, and leaving me to wonder how they got on the ticket.

The minute Hot Chip appeared onstage, all earlier noise melted away. Opening with "Shake a Fist", the entire club went Hot Chip crazy and for the next two hours, they had me and most everyone in their pocket. In a sharp white suit (half Don Johnson, half Kip Dynamite), Alexis Taylor coolly sang "And I Was a Boy from School", "Ready for the Floor", and "Wrestlers" as the audience mouthed the words and pardon the expression, shook their fists. They managed to sound improvisational with complicated rhythms, a dozen instruments, choreographed lighting and seamless song transitions. Hot Chip were very tight. As the set drew to a close, they gave a nod to First Avenue royalty and played a few bars of "Little Red Corvette" before closing their encore with "Nothing Compares To You", sweeping into their own "Made In The Dark". Hot Chip put on a show I won't forget.

About half way through the performance, I looked around the room and realized I was bopping and singing along with everyone. I guess Hot Chip is the New Wave of the New Wave of New Wave, and in that sweaty crowd, I had flashbacks to Viv and I bounding around PopScene belting out the lyrics to all songs we loved so dear. If I were 18 and an art student once again, I'm sure one if not all five would be pinups on my dorm room wall.

As the house lights went on, I waved to Owen and he smiled and waved back. At least I think he did.

-AliRose

ps - Here is a camera phone video I found on YouTube from the show: