Hot Chip played at the Roundhouse, Sydney, on Friday, 18th November. David James Young reviews.
For many Australian live music fans, dancing to Hot Chip was one of the last memories of a world before it was overtaken by the pandemic. It says a lot that the evergreen synth-wielding Brits are back so relatively soon. This country has always been one of the band’s key priorities – not just for our love of indie-disco nostalgia, but because we will turn out in droves every time they make it back across the pond.
Hot Chip – ‘I Feel Better’
Tonight is no exception, with the Roundhouse properly heaving as the band takes to its respective workstations while Gal Costa’s ‘Relance’ booms over the PA. The bustling, funk-tinged groove of ‘Down’, which opens the band’s latest album, Freakout/Release, leads into the raving procession of ‘Flutes’. This killer one-two opener sets the tone for a night of near-constant movement both on and off the stage.
The vocoder of Freakout/Release‘s title track rouses a huge response, as do Hot Chip classics such as ‘Night & Day’ and ‘Boy From School’, with the latter taking many back to a time when they literally were boys from school. While the lion’s share of tracks are lifted from Freakout/Release, the setlist makes room for songs from throughout Hot Chip’s career.
You can’t have a Hot Chip show without ‘Ready For The Floor’, and the inclusion of songs like ‘Hungry Child’ and 2020’s Jarvis Cocker collab ‘Straight To The Morning’ is a nice touch. Although ‘Don’t Deny Your Heart’ is missed, as is ‘One Life Stand’, it’s hard to fault the band’s selection process.
Hot Chip – ‘Freakout/Release’
Hot Chip’s two leaders, Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard, are men of few words, but they do compliment the audience on its collective energy throughout the evening – almost incredulous at the fact they’re able to play on the other side of the world again to such an attentive, adoring audience.
Keyboardist/guitarist Owen Clarke is a man of even fewer words – he doesn’t sing and there isn’t a microphone in front of his synths – and yet he constantly engages with the audience through his cheery dancing and wonderfully camp use of spirit fingers.
Watching the band at work, switching from instrument to instrument and building their layered arrangements until they’re bursting with Technicolor life, is genuinely impressive. No matter how gridlocked and processed the beats are, it’s all about the human touch at play.
Further Reading
Dua Lipa Review – Seven-Year-Old Lola Critiques Pop Star’s Sydney Show
