Shaved Orange.

Staring at a 20 foot colour-changing moon propped against the stage at the Commodore Ballroom on Monday April 21st, I rolled my eyes at the distorted buzz incrementally increasing in pitch, introducing Hot Chip's set. BUT when they tossed on a throw-back to the 50's, they redeemed themselves and I got pumped for the upcoming hour of getting my boogey on.

And I did.

With Alexis Taylor hopping onto drums between vocal sets and Al Doyle bobbing about, it was impossible not to. Well, maybe not for the myriad of hip kids adhering to Principle 6 (see table below). In fact, I observed every one of the listed tenets at this show.

Hot Chip started the night off with Shake a Fist (mp3) from their newest album Made in the Dark. As everyone knows, you can never have too much cow-bell, so I particularly appreciated the extra cowbell they peppered into this performance of the song. Also, I was stoked they weren't solely catering to a dance crowd, but played lighters-in-the-air/swaying-back-and-forth songs like Crap Kraft Dinner (mp3) or their unexpected twist on Sinead O'Connor's legendary Nothing Compares to You (mp3).

As Made in the Dark isn't my favourite album, at times, the night seemed to drone on. Also I'll admit, I kind of snorted at the sporatic 'trippy' lighting effects, beating with the music, instigating a cheering crowd. But, pretentious criticism aside, many a fist were thrown and pointy finger pointed on that bouncy dance floor.

A special thank you to new Vancouver smoking by-laws: barred from going out for smoke breaks, I will happily smoke on the dance floor instead.