Last night I went down to Highline Ballroom with three friends and saw the wonderful Hot Chip rock the venue for all the fans who waited for hours in the brutal cold for their free Myspace Secret Show. They played a full set with a healthy mix of songs from their latest album One Life Stand, along with fan favorites from The Warning and Made In The Dark. I have better photos to share with you but left my cord in my dorm. I will upload them and make a separate post on Monday.

Free Energy opened up the show, and blew me out of the water. I expected good things from them after all the good press that they have been receiving. Yet, they managed to be miles ahead of my expectations putting on a fantastic show. Their songs are guitar based and full of energy. Their sound is full of magnificent guitar playing and a general band tightness that is hard to find in such a young band. They were great with the crowd, bringing everyone to move their feet. Paul Sprangers, the bands lead singer, has a great voice that perfectly suites the bands throwback sound. He has a lot of energy that helps fuel a band that needs no help with firy guitars and a upbeat rhythm section. I have not been this impressed by an opening band in a long, long, time. Free Energy are indeed the real deal. My excitement for their debut album, Stuck On Nothing, has just gone through the roof. They are totally one to watch in 2010!!!

Hot Chip came out with the perfect opener with “Thieves In The Night”. The crowd had no problem signing and dancing to Hot Chip’s clean beats. I was impressed about how well the band incorporated both rock and dance elements to their live sets. Alexis Taylor has a great voice live, and brings plenty of funky dance moves to his songs. The band plays classic songs like “Boy From School” a little different than you are used to, but it all makes sense live. The obvious standout was “Ready for The Floor” and this was not surprising at all. The song came to live on its own live, and fueled the band to give an epic performance. Al Doyle, the bands guitarist (he’s also in LCD Soundsystem) said it was weird not ending the set with that. After that they went into their current single “One Life Stand” and hit that out of the park as well. Hot Chip didn’t slow down at all playing all of their dance songs, leaving no room for their slower “ballads”.

They came back for a 3 song encore that allowed them to play two more songs from the new album, one of which was “Slush” which is one of their slower songs on One Life Stand. However, it played perfectly fine as a transition to the epic finish that the band gave to one of my favorite Hot Chip songs “Hold On”.

The show was a lot of fun, and Hot Chip gave it their all. This was really nice of them considering the show was free. I had a lot of fun, and was impressed with Hot Chip’s skill at live performances. They are a very good band live, and I would totally pay to see them again!!!

Setlist: (photo of the actual set that I managed to snag, is also posted below – They actually played Hold On, but didn’t put it on the setlist. I forgot where it was exactly, but I think it was the 2nd to last song!)

Thieves In The Night
Hand Me Down Your Love
And I Was A Boy From School
One Pure Thought
Alley Cats
Ready For The Floor
One Life Stand
Over & Over
We Have Love
Hold On

———–
Encore:

I Feel Better
Hold On
Slush
Take It In