Hot Chip & LCD Soundsystem (and other fun things too!)

At the weekend we went to see Hot Chip & LCD Soundsystem play a massive gig at the Magna centre in Sheffield. It was awesome! We saw Hot Chip here in Notts at Rock City recently and that was an incredible experience. On an ordinary Monday evening it felt like we had been to the carnival and church at the same time. Hot Chip came onstage to squeals like Beatlemania and every person there was dancing and singing.

This time things were different.  By the time Hot Chip came on the area near the stage was a swamp of people crowding and pushing, so we retreated towards the back of this huge cavernous room. Inevitably the distance affected our involvement with the gig, so we didn't enjoy them quite as much this time. To be honest, we would've been hard pushed to equal last time anyway, so that was fine. Plus there were still some amazing tracks and their live sound is great. My favourite part is when the Chip that talks (beard & gingerish? Not a singer?) has to run between all his different instruments - guitar, drums, kettle drum - in one song. He really covered some ground.

The real revelation for me was LCD Soundsystem. Anders loves them, and has done for aaaages, which is why we got the tickets for this gig. I've never really listened to them if I'm honest. I've heard Daft Punk, Drunk Girls and a couple of others and they've never really grabbed me. The only LCD song I've really connected with is I Can Change, so I was standing just really waiting for that one song. We were right down the front, near the stage. Shit Robot was DJing and people were really getting in the party mood. Then, the lights went down and we stood in near total darkness and a familiar song started up. It felt both foolish and electric to be standing in the dark listening to I'm Not In Love by 10CC, with strangers all around singing along. After that, lights came up and LCD came out onto the stage and started up with Dance Yrself Clean from the new album:



(This video is really long, but I think it gives a feel of what the atmosphere created is like if you watch just the first few seconds)

It was like a lesson in how to open a gig. I didn't know the song at all, but everyone around us did and were singing along and really dancing. The song is perfectly constructed for this scenario - starting relatively small with James Murphy's vocals and minimal backing, adding in a few more instruments and members of the band as it builds and then halfway through just exploding into a huge sound. It was perfect to build tension and excitement at the band coming on and then gave the perfect release for everyone to sing and dance and (in the case of a man stood behind me who used me as a steadying post...) headbang. It was perfect.

(We had somehow ended up slap bang in the middle of fan boy central with people who knew every word and some people who had clearly taken their drugs too early and were even bouncing to 10CC. )

After both bands had finished they came on together and did a special collaborative cover of a song called "Seabird" by the Alessi Brothers (no, me either). It was really magical. It was like a moment from The Last Waltz for me, almost romantic... It was like a celebration of a tour romance between the two bands and was just lovely.

(as a post-script, I've just listened to the original and it's lovely, but the brothers appear to maybe have a little lisp... distracting and yet very sweet!)

Anyhow, I loved it and I'm really glad we got to see LCD, particularly as it keeps being suggested that this is their last album. And they played I Can Change. Yeah!

Other fun stuff we've been up to (quickly):

- Saw "A Town Called Panic" at Broadway just before it finished. Animated film, you might recognise it from the Cravendale milk ads. it's all created in stop-motion using little vintage toys (cowboy, indian etc) as the main characters. It's really fast and fun and inventive and I'd recommend seeing it on DVD if you can.

- Saw Micah P Hinson at the Rescue Rooms - This was the day after Hello Gore II (pics here from that by the way) and I was in no fit state to be going to a gig. I can't do things two days in a row. It didn't help that he had a harp lady playing before he came on and the rolling sounds were affecting my queasiness. I have nothing useful to add about the gig.

- My dad turned 60 and we celebrated with him. One of the things we did was go for a meal to a restaurant in Sheffield called Kitchen. We had the most down to earth, Sheffield born & bred, waiter you can imagine. Turned out he was a partner in the restaurant, which made sense, I'm not sure he'd have made it as a waiter. We asked what a dish described as Paris Brest with lots of french words was. His response? "Well, it's a choux bun. The chef came up with the name. I think he's probably made all that other stuff up." in a broad Yorkshire accent. Lovely! I ate a dish called 3 Little Pigs which was pork in 3 ways, including the revelation that belly pork is actually delicious.

- Went to Lustre at Lakeside Arts - this is one of my favourite events of the year - a big craft market with beautifully hand made objects from all over the country. Every year I suggest we go to look at Christmas presents. Every year we go and come back with "us" presents instead. This year I got a brooch with a zebra on. I love it.

SO, just to finish off I can confirm that it is Jumpers for Goalposts this week at the Alley Cafe on Thursday. We've got Burly Nagasaki playing, which will be a real treat. Plus we've got a great creative competition. Come down! It's free!

Love Bex
x

New obsession

Hi,

I've just started listening to a tune off the new LCD Soundsystem album and I'm obsessed with it already.

If I knew how to stream it on here I would... instead you can watch this performance from Jools Holland:



There's something really beautiful about this song, it's so fragile and open and then an amazing tune at the same time. It reminds me a bit of Hot Chip, but with a bit more confidence. There's something really compelling about the fact that it's being sung by a forty year old man with a slight paunch and his shirt untucked too. I really like the phrasing of the verses, the way the lyrics are like long sentences spread out over the melody. I feel like I've known this song forever and yet I want to play it all over again as soon as it finishes. In short, I'm a bit in love with this song. Shhh... don't tell Anders.

love Bex
x

Hot Chip – Rock City (15th Feb 2010)

This gig combined all the hedonism and euphoria of your favourite dance anthems with real heart and soul. Even on a damp, cold Monday night Hot Chip brought the carnival atmosphere – dynamic and dancey, but not at the expense of emotion and their idiosyncratic, lovely songwriting skill.

For the live set, they reworked lots of their material - especially some of the big hitters. Boy From School (the wife's fave) became punchier and less vulnerable. Over and Over morphed into the perfect killer tune – something that got the mosh pit chanting and pogoing like crazy, but still surprised and tickled the headnodding musos at the back (apart from the huge muscle-guy next to Bex, who remained as solid and impassive as a rock throughout).

Yes this was stadium dance at times, but it kept all the subtle, intelligent flourishes that have always marked Hot Chip out as a band of beguiling character. Even when turning everything up to ten and they never trot out some Pendulum-esque 2-D luddite dance-rock.

The new material sounded great too – Brothers being a particular favourite. Guitarist / steel drummer / trumpeter (!) asks us all to vote for it to become the next World Cup anthem and I for one can think of nothing more apt.

Anders
x

(p.s. I did take some pics and awfully noisy video, but my phone has decided it hates me so I can't put them up. It was an AMAZING gig though. - Bex)

Who doesn't like hotpants, beer and partying?

Hello

This Friday (16th May) we're all going to be down at The Chameleon to see 3 ace bands play and quite possibly dress up as Norse Gods. Hope you can join us...

BLOODGROUP - Three siblings from Iceland get together with a couple of friends from the Faroe Islands to make "electronic dance-pop for people that like hotpants, beer and partying". They end up sounding like all the best bits of Hot Chip, The Knife, Neon Neon and LCD Soundsystem but from Iceland (and the Faroe Islands). Bloody brilliant!

YUNIOSHI - Huw Stephens and Jo Whiley ("great innit") are fans, their singer's never seen without a sun visor and they make breakbeat-stealing indie rock that's got EMI interested. They are Nottingham's Yunioshi and they're gonna tickle your insides with their 'Fisher Price Pop'.

BATTLECAT! - The best thing to come out of Mansfield since Alvin Stardust taught us all the green cross code, Battlecat! have been described as a "two-man digital sh*t storm" by one over-excited bystander. They are actually thoroughly nice lads who just happen to make the kind of lovely racket that Transformers have sex to.

All this plus the Yeah I'll Play It Later DJs and probably a fake beard or two as well.

See you there
x Anders

Crunking Good Times

I've just had one of the most random weekends ever.
Began with a Zaireeka party (listening to the Flaming Lips' genius album on 4 stereos at once - ACE)
then went to Bruce Ayling's Morecambe & Wise party.

I had a dance-off with Tom from the beeb and woke up yesterday with severe muscle strain all over after trying to 'crunk'.

Got the new Hot Chip?

Hope to see you very soon. At the Fists gig on Saturday in fact. At the Orange Tree, free of charge, courtesy of the lovely folks at LeftLion.

Anders
x

p.s. Cuban CrimeWave at Riff Raff @ Muse on Wednesday should be a belter too


Wah Wah Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh


Kid 'n' Play eat your hearts out


Tom & Jerry


Don't ask


"Jump! do do do Go Ahead and Jump!"