I paid more than double face value for tickets to see Hot Chip play one of their few U.S. tour dates at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. But illness got the best of a few band members following their New York show and they postponed the LA gig at the last minute. Hot Chip was conveniently coming back to the area to play Coachella alongside Prince. I guess they are no longer “sick of motherfuckers trying to tell em that their down with Prince.”
So, the El Rey show was rescheduled to the much larger Mayan on the Monday following Coachella. I was a bit concerned that they might have a Coachella hangover and not be on top of their game after a long weekend in the dessert. But Hot Chip rocked it, energetically bouncing around and playing tracks primarily from their latest two albums. Towards the end of the show, they pulled off a seamless transitioned from “Boy From School” into Underworld’s “Born Slippy.” They dropped a second cover track, putting their twist on Sinead O’Conner’s “Nothing Compares To You,” before closing the night out with an encore performance of “We Were Made in the Dark.”
Alexis Taylor’s voice was solid, with little noticeable difference between their studio recordings and the live set. Live vocals from Goddard were not quite as strong when he sang solo, but the back and forth and harmonizing with Taylor was brilliant.
We watched most of the show from the upper balcony, but followed the crowd down to the main floor when it was time to “do it do it do it do it do it do it now.” The main floor section was packed shoulder to shoulder, with some blokes in the middle holding up the English flag from time to time. Hot Chip was amazing live and well worth the $60 tickets I scored on Ebay.
que onda muy bueno