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Hot Club De Paris begin the evenings proceedings with a short barber-shop quartet number before the excited crowd who have filled the venue to capacity for tonight’s show. The combination of the startlingly impressive musicianship of the three part harmonies along with the tongue-in-cheek northern humour of the lyrics sets the tone for the rest of the night.
Guitars and drums are wielded for the second song and speed of light drum rolls and addictively catchy guitar riffs soon intoxicate the audience and silence any idle banter amongst the crowd, the band are so caught up in the momentum of their sound that the first three songs of the set merge into one long continuous performance, each song blending seamlessly into the next. Hot Club combine the lyrical charm of The Futureheads with the classic indie guitar hooks of Maximo Park, and put both bands to shame in the process. The audience are revelling, singing along to all the words as if they’re at some whopping great stadium gig watching their long time heroes. ‘I Quit My Job’ hits the spot with all the fellow frustrated employees within the place and almost evokes some kind of revolt. There appears to be some attempted dancing taking place but Hot Club’s time signatures are so bonkers throughout all of their songs that even a simple nodding of the head proves impossible to maintain.
Unpretentious and un-contrived, Hot Club bring a little Liverpudlian charm to our coastal shores which is like a breath of fresh air. Each and every song is a blinder, ‘Your Face Looks All Wrong’ is pure genius, and forthcoming single ‘Shipwreck’ will make you gurn with. We don’t even have to go through the tedium of clapping and whooping for an encore for ten minutes at the end of the show, they just stay on stage, announce the final song and then do another. Hot Club De Excellent.
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