Sunday, February 21, 2010

Hot Chip / Casiokids / Grosvenor @ The O2 Academy Birmingham, Saturday 20th February 2010

If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed to warm the cockles (and other body parts for that matter) on a cold, cold February evening it’s some quality electro pop...and it doesn’t get much better than Hot Chip. Creators of some of the catchiest electro classics of the past few years (step forward ‘Over and Over’ and ‘Ready for the Floor’) 2010 sees them celebrate their tenth anniversary (good grief...tempus fugit) with the release of their rather fine new album ‘One Life Stand’.

First up though – and a bit of a nice surprise this (as I hadn’t seen him/them billed) – Grosvenor. Fronted by a certain Rob Smoughton (who later cropped up as Hot Chip’s drummer) Grosvenor are a homage to the great late 70’s / early 80’s sounds of bands like Steely Dan, Supertramp and Hall & Oates. In other words the kind of spotlessly polished gloriously glossy pop that indie and lad rock was supposed to have killed off. Unashamedly retro – and all the more fabulous for it – I can’t remember enjoying an opening act quite so much for ages. Coming onstage to a shout of “Eric Clapton” from one of the audience (to be fair Rob does bear a passing resemblance to slowhand himself), the Grosvenor machine delivered a good half a dozen soulful pop classics in the making from Nightmoves (with its slowed down Supertramp ‘Dreamer-esque’ intro) through to the 80’s Europop tinged ‘Drive Your Car’. Yes, I’m a closet MOR pop whore and proud of it. Grosvenor may be square but, as Huey and the boys put it (I’m really not doing my reputation much good here am I eh?), “it’s hip to be square”. Slip on a white suit, roll up your sleeves, pour yourself a Babycham and stick Grosvenor on. If it don’t make you feel a million dollars I’ll eat my Filofax.

Next up, all the way from Norway, it’s Casiokids. Taking the brave (but quite right) decision to sing in their native Norwegian tongue added an exotic, slightly other worldly feel to their set. It also gave me the chance to interpret what they were singing in my own way. So (in my head at least) I heard a song about the difficulties of parking a Sherman tank in supermarket car parks and a lovely little ditty about licking salt off your lover’s eyebrows. As well as singing in Norwegian they favour (as the name implies) old skool technology, cheap (nowadays at least) and trashy keyboards together with the instrument du jour, the cow bell...several cow bells in fact...I counted at least six...all played with the kind of youthful exuberance of a bunch of 8 year olds with ADHD. Brilliant.

That just left Hot Chip then. If they’d only ever released ‘Over and Over’ that would be enough reason to go and see them, but they’ve got a hard drive stuffed full of clever, catchy pop hits and tonight’s set saw them stream a fair few. Sure, they may look like a group of Science teachers on a field trip but the Academy was full of trendy young things gagging for their Chip fix. The set kicked off with early single ‘And I Was a Boy From School’, in many ways the archetypal Chip track, dancey enough to nod your head to but with enough lyrical content to get the old noggin thinking as well. From there on in it was one Chip classic after another, including, as you’d expect, a fair smattering from arguably their best album so far, the newbie, ‘One Life Stand’. There was the Giorgio Moroder-tastic ‘Thieves in the Night’, the touchingly sombre ‘Brothers’ (sung by fellow Chip vocalist Rob) and the steel drum infused ‘One Life Stand’ itself - a worthy addition to the Chips legacy, right up there with ‘Over and Over’ and ‘Ready for the Floor’ for sheer catchiness. Funky electro, dirty synths, sweet breaks and Alexis angelic voice...pure magic. In fact throughout the set Alexis’ soft and gentle vocal provided a delicious counterpoint to the beats and bleeps – something very human in the midst of all this technology – which makes the Chip that rare beast (these days at least), a band that’s as good to listen as it is to dance to. There was plenty of bopping going on around me as well. Predictably ‘Over and Over’ got the biggest bop of the night going but, for a good hour and half, a several hundred heads nodded away furiously like that Churchill dog. Oh yesyesyesyes. As someone who grew up with the sounds of the Human League, Heaven 17, Soft Cell and Blancmange on his Walkman it’s gratifying to see that a band like Hot Chip can still do something fresh with electro pop. Chip’s off the old pop as it were...yes, you’re right, there was no need for that was there?

PS: Don't forget to check out the Gig Junkies version of this review featuring pretty pictures courtesy of Mr Fox. It just like being there...without the sweaty bird rubbing her armpit all over your face...

2 comments:

Ashley Keeler said...

... and there was something quite heart-warming about Alexis slyly singing, and smiling, at an ear-defender wearing infant (who I presume was his own child) in the arms of his mother in the circle seating above. That kid must have been hypnotised by the light show. I know I was…

Plus Alexis was wearing a Wham t-shirt. They’re my number 1 guys.

The Baron said...

You're my number 1 guy...