hot chip @ highline ballroom, 2/2/08 (groundhog day)

to my great pleasure, i recently started working at highline ballroom, a 750-person capacity venue on 16th street. so i'll be reporting on a lot more shows from that venue, but my visual coverage might suffer - i don't know the ease with which i'll be able to take photographs or shoot video. fortunately, i was able to get a lot for saturday's hot chip show, which, without my real knowledge, was probably the best show in town that night. i was straight in the back, which explains the angle for all the photos and video, and why there aren't any closeups.

this hot chip show, in anticipation of their third full-length, made in the dark, was billed as "intimate," with good reason - the band, which was virtually unknown before 2006, is now one of the hottest indie acts in the world, and highline's tight capacity meant that the show sold out long ago. so that was pretty cool. i've never had much of an interest in the band, but i was excited for the show regardless - i figured a polished act like hot chip must put on a good show. i was also excited when i heard that devlin & darko, spank rock's djs, were opening, courtesy of a hot chip special invitation.

though they proudly hail from baltimore, devlin & darko spun a very 70s-south florida set, with lots of disco and funk flavor. i really liked their sound though i've never really been a spank rock person. not much else to add.

hot chip travels with their own soundman, and they spent hours making sure everything sounded great, so the sound was really impeccable - a lot of bass, but it wasn't overpowering anything else and all the instruments were crystal clear. their set came almost entirely from made in the dark, with only three older songs - "a boy from school," "over & over," and "no fit state" coming from their second album, the warning. though the crowd did go craziest for the old songs, the entire crowd seemed to recognize all, or most, of the band's new ones as well - made in the dark leaked a couple months ago, and it looked like everyone in the room had downloaded a copy.

hot chip were spot on. it was a really good show. don't really feel like writing much today.

"shake a fist" (mp3 and video)
buy made in the dark when it's released tuesday, 2/4/08.