CHAIRLIFT: LIVE AT THE KNITTING FACTORY

For a number of reasons, mostly involving bitchy firewalls, I didn’t get a chance to listen to Brooklyn based Chairlift before I went to Knitting Factory on Wednesday. Turns out that it was for the better, because they were pretty awesome live. I was actually there to see LA crazy man Ariel Pink, but you all know how I feel about getting my beauty rest, and I wasn’t about to hang around for hours waiting for his set to start. After Chairlift finished their set, I was satiated musically.
At work on Thursday, I listened to Chairlift on hypem, and was sort of disappointed. They didn’t seem nearly as exciting in recording as they did live. It essentially sounded like Au Revoir Simone occasionally mixed with Stars.

In concert, it was surprisingly ethereal, there was something about the way that they performed, even their slower, spacier sounds made us want to dance. The lead singer was very powerful live, her voice sounded sweet and confidant, and not at all dependent upon her background music. The synthy sound wasn’t overpowering either, it wasn’t just some chick with a casio, there was solid music making happening.

Chairlift’s album releases on Kanine sometime this summer….although I doubt that I will buy it, they are more of a live band anyway. We’ll see if I’m eating my words in a few weeks, but for now, I’m holding off on home listening.

<3 The Elephant