Hot Chip are hot

I’ve never really understood where Hot Chip fit in. Having shot to musical prominence during the years of ‘nu-rave’ (terrible clothes, a lot of dick heads but hell, the music was fun), the band mix catchy pop riffs and delicate vocals with synths that time and again slay the dancefloor. This combination helped the band pass through throughthe years of nu-rave unscathed - Hadouken, Test Icicles where are you now? In many ways Hot Chip were the antithesis of most nu-rave bands; Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor (the two founding members) went to university at Oxford and Cambridge respectively. They also play the stereotypical nerd very well indeed and nowadays are old enough to be some of their younger fans’ dads. They’re not your stereotypical electro-pop act, and neither are they a balls to the wall dance collective; that leaves only one conclusion: they don’t fit in.

This was a question I was trying to grapple with last Friday at Brixton Academy, whilst seeing Hot Chip perform live for the first time in my six years of buying their CDs.

The night itself was kicked off by Django Django, the much hyped lads who met at college in Edinburgh. Dubiously wearing matching shirts, they put in a performance that was worthy of their Mercury Music Prize nomination while still exhibiting the amateur modesty of a band not long graduated from performing in pubs. As we waited for Hot Chip to take to the stage the theatre became increasingly packed - never before have I been surrounded by so many people that I truly believe would have been able to recite the BBC 6 Music schedule by heart. But I shouldn’t generalise too much; there were also a few lads wearing day-glo caps, awkwardly stuck in 2007.

Finally Hot Chip took to the stage, ploughing the raging synth/drum combination of ‘Shake a Fist’ through the dance floor. While their studio-produced album tracks range from the delicate to the solid head-nod-inducing, live Hot Chip beef up the synthesisers and pound out the bass. While this made for great interpretations of their studio recordings, it also posed a dilemma to a large portion of the crowd who were there with partners and deemed it inappropriate to wind the clock back six years and throw their forearms in wild, yet rhythmic patterns.

Apart from considering the existential curiosities of Hot Chip, another thing that struck me during the performance was the sheer size oftheir back catalogue these days. A near two hour show was filled with highlights of their work; not once did the material feel as if it was acting as filler. Half way through the show the band wound it down briefly to exhibit the beautiful melancholy of Alexis Taylor’s vocals, but the highlight of the show came as Valentina claimed the stage to perform the incredible ‘Gabriel’ she released with Joe Goddard. Indeed the power of her voice blew everyone away, this live rendition far better than the studio-produced release.

In the eight years since Hot Chip’s first full length release they’ve always done their own thing; they undoubtedly influenced the rise of nu-rave but the real testament to their success is how they carried on unblemished long after it had vanished. That the band doesn’t fit into boxes prescribed by music nazis is a testament to what makes their albums end up on repeat and their gigs so much fun.