Hot Chip

Hot Chip

Date: 28.02.08
Venue: Corn Exchange, Brighton



After only seeing Hot Chip performing an in store at (the now sadly defunct) Fopp in Brighton just under two years ago, I was mega excited to finally see them play their electronic music in a proper venue. Opening with Shake A Fist off their recently released Made In The Dark album, and playing maybe a slightly too shorter set of just an hour they played a mix of old and new, and not surprisingly it was Over and Over off The Warning LP that got the crowd dancing.

Alexis Taylor's high pitched melodic vocals swept across the Corn Exchange to the sound of the rest of the bands Casio based bleeps. It was refreshing to see music being played so intelligently and passionately as the boys did last night. Rumoured to be playing Summercase in Spain this year, I really fucking hope they do as would love to see them again.

Nouvelle Vague

Nouvelle Vague + Phoebe Killdeer and The Short Straws
Date: 20/2/08
Venue: The Scala, London

I just wrote a massive review of this, and then Firefox decided to crash, so don't blame me if this one is short and sweet.

Opener Phoebe Killdeer and the Short Straws were really good. Their jazz/samba/acoustic/folk/indie/funk (is that even a genre?) went down really well. Phoebe used to sing for Nouvelle Vague but it seems she has gone onto form her own group with The Short Straws as her band. A really tight and mesmerising performance from both band and singer.

Nouvelle Vague took to the stage and opened with A Forest (The Cure) which was amazing to hear live. They played a fantastic set of slow and more upbeat songs, including Too Drunk To Fuck (Dead Kennedys), Blue Monday (New Order), Friday Night Saturday Morning (The Specials), Ever Fallen In Love (Buzzcocks), Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division) and Dancing With Myself (Billy Idol). The high lite has got to be their version of God Save The Queen (Sex Pistols) which was played with just an acoustic guitar and one of the two female vocalists which I think was Melanie.

Overall well worth the treck to Kings Cross to get to the Scala and the £20 for the ticket. I really hope this band don't decide to 'go in another direction' and alter their bossa nova covers of 80's New Wave and Post Punk artists because the rearrangements that they create are so removed from the original sound, it's refreshing to hear some of my favourite songs in a completely different covers format as opposed to your mates band down the pub banging out yet another rendition of Teenage Kicks.


Unfortunately couldn't attend Nada Surf, but Hot Chip in Brighton on Thursday should be a good one.