100 Shows of 2010 - #46: Chromeo @ 9:30 Club, 7/26/10

It was bound to happen. Inevitable, you might say. It finally happened on July 26, when yours truly went to judge not one but two gigs. Yes, friends, I was double-booked. And how delightful it was, two shows in one night. I highly recommend it. First up, after a kind last minute offer from my lovely friend Laura, was Chromeo, shimmying and shaking all over the place at the 9:30 Club. It was ridiculously over the top, get up get down fun, and I’m pretty pleased to have seen this dynamic duo in the flesh.

MINI RECAP: Chromeo = All Business! Overall score: B+.

Even before Chromeo appeared, the die-hards down the front were chanting for them (“Chro-me-o, Oh-oh”) loudly and lustily. I can’t think of the last time I was at a gig with such urgency from the crowd before the band took the stage. When the duo did emerge, the populace of the club went absolutely insane, and didn’t really let up from there. The guys themselves, a big dude in a white wifebeater and a skinny dude in even skinnier jeans and shades, looked pleased as punch to be there, full of smiles and seemingly feeding off the energy of the assembled. I wouldn’t have put the two together, but Chromeo showed me once and for all that Montreal knows how to get their groove on. Perhaps my favorite part about Chromeo is their keyboards: held aloft by lighted mannequin legs, somehow the most appropriate vessel for them.

Natural showmen, the pair had the crowd eating out of their hands effortlessly. They know how to work a room, and then some. The beats were big, the vocals were verging on silly, and I was smiling the whole time. It was a feel good kinda set, a set to leave your inhibitions at the door and just dance til you can’t feel your feet. Every kinda soul you can imagine was at the 9:30, from the glow-jewelry crowd to the be-khakied, and everyone was having a grand ole time. Hard to tell if the boys take themselves seriously or are merely poking fun at anyone and everyone, but I was well entertained. If you ever find yourself needing a night of carefree dancefloor abandon, you could do a lot worse.

mp3: Don’t Turn The Lights On (Chromeo from the forthcoming Business Casual)