Like most sets you've seen in bigger venues like the Roseland, Hot Chip's live show on Tuesday night had a workmanlike quality to it. Each of the seven members of the group hit their marks on stage, being at the right place at the right time, and never flubbing a note. It was a well-oiled machine dressed up in colorful clothes that looked borrowed from the cast of Parker Lewis Can't Lose.
It was up to the music and the energy of the folks onstage to give the Roseland crowd the spirited feeling that comes with watching your favorite band play your favorite songs right in front of you. Hot Chip took obvious joy in adapting their songs for a live setting, mashing together a more electro take on "Ready for the Floor" with a bouncy, Brazilian-tinged version of "I Feel Better." And while most of the material from their latest album Why Make Sense? stuck close to the studio versions, they remixed and reworked their past successes without losing a whiff of the songs' bounce or wonder.
Hot Chip even pandered a bit to the audience, closing out the show with an acid house cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark." It was the perfect rousing moment to send us silly Americans out of the venue grinning wildly—though why frontman Alexis Taylor didn't go the extra mile and pull an audience member up to dance on stage with him as the rest of the band rode their insistent groove is anybody's guess.
More photos after the jump!
