Hot Chip @ 9:30 Club [DC]- 9/7/2019
Al Doyle and Owen Clarke of Hot Chip at 9:30 Club (Photo by Mauricio Castro)
As the saying may or may not go, "The nerds shall inherit the dance floor." Okay, maybe that's not completely true, but it definitely is for Hot Chip. For nearly 20 years, the British seven-piece band has merged the worlds of electronic and live music in ways that have created jubilant live shows around the world multiple times over. Their latest album A Bath Full of Ecstasy continues this trend, and the band have adopted a colorful aesthetic to go with their current tour.
The band have more than enough musical output to make the perfect set list to get people dancing, from a reworked "And I Was a Boy From School" from 2005's The Warning to the house-inspired "Lonely Child" and the wistful, beautiful "Melody of Love," both off of their newest record. The band had a lot of synthesizers, guitars, and percussion to play with on stage, making it a packed show, but one where band members would switch spots with one another on stage to show their stuff on a new instrument. If they weren't playing something on stage, they were dancing their asses off just as much as the crowd was. Their genuine love for the power of dance music doesn't just show in their energetic and powerful on-stagr performance, but also from the fact that they had the energy to do a DJ set at nearby U Street Music Hall right after the show, late into the night. Hot Chip live for this kind of stuff, and it's that kind of genuine undying enthusiasm that will keep them atop the list of must-see live shows for years to come.
Opening for Hot Chip were noted sonic experimenters Holy Fuck. Their live show was just as visceral a musical experience as their band name would have you think. Hunching over a mess of analog synths and wires, they slowly pieced together an overwhelming wall of sound that was equal parts riotous, rocking, and triumphant. Their most recent album, 2016's Congrats, was released through Innovative Leisure, and new music from the band is forthcoming.
