Hot Chip @ SWG3, Glasgow, 1 Apr

Although a bit stodgy and murky at points, 15 years on and with a new album on the way, Hot Chip still have the ability to shock

Review by James Hampson | 05 Apr 2019

Hot Chip are back! Everyone likes a bit of Hot Chip, don’t they? Among the mid-noughties indie-pop arrivals, has anyone (apart from Arctic Monkeys) persisted as successfully as Hot Chip? And now they’re here again to try out some new material in the live environment. Hot Chip’s look this year is lab coats covered with neon spray paint, to emphasise the rave scene/nerd scene dichotomy that they’ve fed off for most of their careers. Joe Goddard doesn’t seem to have got the memo on this however and takes his off three songs in, yelping with glee as he plays in a comfy hoodie.

They begin with Huarache Lights, a stodgy and murky song for what is often quite a stodgy and murky set, with bright moments shining through. There are new songs to tease us. Hungry Child is a summery and frothy, Goddard-led house number, while Melody of Love is Hot Chip back at their best. Alexis Taylor remains one of the most earnest, heart-warming figures in pop when he’s at his best, and on this song he clearly is. Combining the best of his sentimental solo work with the driving pulse of Al Doyle and Goddard’s work behind him, it's the emotional heart of the set, and bodes well for the new album.

Otherwise the set is focused on older material. Flutes has Taylor, Doyle and Owen Clarke rotating together, spinning 90 degrees with every bar. Often with Hot Chip live, you get the impression of five (or, with added bassist and drummer, seven) people doing their own synth-twiddling and it sometimes, somehow works out, but this moment of Devo-esque unity gets the crowd dancing along too.

Attempts to rejig some of the old favourites risk falling flat and occasionally do. The vocals in One Life Stand are stretched and made quivering, instead of the low brooding style found on record. And I Was a Boy From School, still probably Hot Chip’s best song, slows down to half-time midway through, and slowly emerges from this sleepy soup to its more typical climax. This works quite well, but elsewhere the changes aren’t as welcome. Ready for the Floor is rendered loose-limbed for the finale, which leaves the audience still keen for a dance in an encore which doesn’t come.

This doesn’t matter quite so much though, as it’s preceded by a cover of The Beastie Boys's Sabotage in a truly astonishing moment, with everyone in the audience looking a little gobsmacked as they slowly realise, yes, this is happening. Alexis Taylor is screaming that he 'can’t stand it' and he 'knows you planned it' in a near-perfect, faithful version of everyone’s favourite punk rap song that isn’t by Limp Bizkit. It shows that, 15 years on, Hot Chip still have an ability to shock.

http://hotchip.co.uk