Hot Chip can be cold fish on record but going live last night at their London comeback show they were scorching. The sweaty cavern of Heaven, a proper nightclub by day, was the ideal spot for their electronic pandemonium, a mass of movement all the way to the back. Augmented to a septet in performance guise, the five original members lined up at the forefront were all smiles in defiance of their studious reputation. Even reserved singer Alexis Taylor spoke up more than usual, freeing himself from his keyboards during recent single Night and Day to stalk the stage delivering its knowingly ridiculous rap: “I like Zep, not Zappa, so please quit your jibber jabber”. While they are an electronic band whose music works well at home, here they had one goal: to move feet. There was barely any respite from the beats, few gaps between songs. Dramatic opener Motion Sickness, from this week’s fifth album, In Our Heads, gave way to a beefed-up And I was a Boy from School. “We’ll give you laid back,” they sang on crowd favourite Over & Over, and did nothing of the sort. They offered only one ballad, smooth new one Look at Where We Are, before the orchestral synth chords of I Feel Better picked up the pace once more. If anyone in the audience was left unconvinced, a robotic reworking of their biggest hit, Ready for the Floor, transformed into Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere and sealed the deal. The festival season is theirs for the taking.
