Emmy the Great - Bodega, Nottingham, 7/10/2008

  by Sarah Mwangi

published: 28 / 10 / 2008

intro

Liverpool-based trio Hot Club de Paris merge snappy adolescent melodies and dance beats. Sarah Mwangi, however, finds nothing that she hasn't already seen before at the Bodega in Nottingham

At the height of Nottingham’s vibrant Freshers Week, Hot Club de Paris were entertainers most suitable to the newly independent students. Aided by the trio of bands who performed before them and their own infectious dance beats, Hot Club de Paris reassured the crowd that it was okay to be young and reckless. With a modest turn out at The Bodega Social Club, it could have been proposed that the crowd was mostly made up of the members from the three opening bands, Dog is Dead, Tellison and Minaars. Whatever the ratio, Hot Club de Paris’ quick and delightful adolescent melodies, however, made the girls dance and the boys nod their heads appreciatively. The three boys from Liverpool played mostly tracks from their new album ,‘Live at Dead Lake’. And amidst the short jangly bursts of music were surprising hints of ska and African tinged guitar lines. But these happy tunes and a buzzing atmosphere, created by these lads and their barely sober peers on the other side of the stage, did not allow for the softer moments of Hot Club’s repertoire to stick effectively. Their albums have certainly showcased their heartfelt versatility, but this was overcast by the up-for-a-laugh mood the audience were in; a shame really. So back to the dance-floor and the audience were now engaged in a uniformed canned sardine dance move (dancing in one spot without the help of rhythm). ‘I Wasn't Being Heartless When I Said Your Favourite Song Lacked Heart’ and ‘Hey, Housebrick’ have a déjà vu effect as they have a we’ve-heard-this-one-before indie pop sound and show no signs of the asymmetric math rock that made them a band to originally take notice of. And although it may have been a memorable night for the freshers that didn’t drink away their brain cells, Hot Club could hardly be differentiated from the number of other bands who follow a post-Libertines vein, let alone from their own support bands. In fact, Dog is Dead were more memorable with their halfhearted experimental jazz than Hot Club with their generic indie pop and witty long song titles.

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