Hot Chip 4.18.08

Owen & Felix of Hot Chip spoke with us after their sound check on April 18 before their sold-out show at First Ave. Enjoy.

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:

Tapes n' Tapes Put a Hex On It

It was so relieving to see Tapes n' Tapes play First Ave's mainroom last night with a fervor unseen since Lollapalooza 2007.

The local-boys-gone-national seemed road weary and jaded after being thrust to the top of the indie heap after releasing "The Loon."

For those who don't know, it's named after their favorite MPLS bar, and they took the stage like it was Saturday night and Grape Apes were on 2fers.
Unleashing new material from "Walk It Off" intertwined with "Loon" faves, they showed their true mastery of the crescendo - starting soft and subtle, lullling the crowd into a trance before unleasing a melodic assault. Don’t believe me? See “10 Gallon Ascots,” which was a part of the well-played encore.

The promising new material and first-hand knowledge of advancing road aging should keep our hometown heroes in tact through their sophomore trek.

I know this after witnessing them rocket into their first-ever single “Just Drums,” Tapes pounded it out like it was their first show at the Hexagon.

Fare thee well until next time TNT, in the word’s of Dee Snyder: Stay Hungry!

-Leif

The Black Keys Burn Rubber in First Ave's Mainroom

I was in my ’93 Chevy Lumina the first time I heard the hard-chargin’ 1969 Chevelle that is the Black Keys. From the first bending bombast of electric blues that is “Thickfreakness” I was at full attention, staring at my AM/FM-cassette car stereo – daring it to tell me more. 

As the vocals kicked in, I wondered how I’d never heard of these 50-year-old electric bluesmen – and waited for the underpaid college DJ to list off the last few songs he played.

“The Black Keys,” he said. I pushed the pedal in my family sedan to the floor and my obsessive-journalistic side took over. No way would have my ear missed such a stellar sound – and I was right. These cats were brand new – and my age.

These near-23-year-olds bounced up out of Akron, Ohio and polished their road skills on a tiny club tour. Months later, they came to the First Avenue Mainroom stage, which they adorned with a few stacks of used tires – a big up to their “Rubber City” origins.

The few hundred in attendance were treated to an epic, skid mark-leaving torrent that left the keys with “no songs left” to play. So for a third encore, they played The Stooges “No Fun.” Appropriate, as the show was a display of raw power by two young men with old souls – ready to take on all comers.

In the Mainroom appearances since, they had seemed weary and worn. They lacked the torque they displayed in ’03, and showed some rust spots. Six years and endless road miles after that epic show, they returned.

Fresh off a tune-up and tricking-out via uber producer Danger Mouse -- who tweaked their strict guitar-drums sound by adding strings, keys, blips and bloops --  the keys appeared a rebuilt machine.

Their stage featuring a 20-foot inflatable tire, through which the Akronites nodded to their humble beginnings while winking at things to come.

Confidently igniting into their triumphant return with a track off the new “Attack and Release” album, Frontman Dan Auerbach popped a piston – I mean string – on his guitar and went scrambling to tune one of two others leaning on stage while drummer Patrick Carney held the beat down.

Within two minutes the false start was forgiven, and they keys spanned their catalog in classic form, mixing in a few new tracks without the mouse trappings – they even pulled a trick out of the leavin’ trunk with a whiskeyed Captain Beefheart cover.

In the 14-some song showcase, the Black Keys proved that despite the high mileage and pimped-out new sound, they’ve got plenty of gas left in the ride.

-Leif