Chairlift: Crescent Ballroom, Phoenix, AZ 4/14/12

The weather in Phoenix has been cantankerous this spring.  An oddly breezy night may have contributed to a lighter than expected crowd for Chairlift’s Saturday show in downtown Phoenix, or it could be the fact that the weekend coincided with the first weekend of Coachella.   Most music fans familiar with Chairlift’s music would be partying in the desert, but for those that stayed behind, Crescent Ballroom provided another cool show. 

The bum, bum, bums intro of “Mr. Sandman” commences after the lights go out, causing a confused  but still excited cheer.  Donning a shimmering kimono, Chairlift singer Caroline Polachek walks out on stage armed with a smile and castanets.  A strange grumble of noise issues from the stage and then Polachek shrieks into the microphone as the synth intro to “Sidewalk Safari” angles out of the PA. The other original band member, Patrick Wimberly stands to her left wearing a bass guitar and a focused expression.

 “I’d like to dedicate this song to those skipping out on the prom” Polachek announces before the spacy intro to “Planet Health” one of only three songs from 2008’s Does You Inspire You, and oddly enough, the slow tempo and smooth melody lend themselves to an awkward slow dance complete with bad hair and disco balls in a high school gym.

 The crowd definitely bounced along the most adamantly to “Bruises,” the poppy hit that served as the theme song to the iPod nano a few years ago was also dedicated to a couple girls on the underage side of the crowd who supposedly skipped their prom to attend the show.   As a neat twist, the second verse of the song was momentarily replaced by a couple lines from Modern English’s new wave hit “I Melt With You.”  

Chairlift ended their set with “Amanaemonesia,” one of the more aggressively synth pop songs from Something.  While Polachek never seemed to hold back at all during the night, this was the first time she pulled the mic from its stand and stepped up to the very front of the stage to sing the chorus directly into the crowd. 

 What was once a duo or trio has grown into a full-fledged live act.  The addition of the backup synth player has allowed free to dance, emote and pantomime the quirky clamors while singing her smooth, flowing vocals with the occasional unexpected raspy shriek for good measure.   Her movements and playing of small percussive instruments are as smooth and graceful as her voice and she never misses a beat with either.  Sprinkle in a couple of quirky movements that coincide with a lyric or odd synth sound and pretty much all of the men and probably a handful of women in the crowd are totally enamored. 

With a show and a new album that is melodic, delicate and slightly odd in places, the members of Chairlift are fantastic performers, especially for how long they’ve been in existence, and their music manages to be accessible and 80s vintage without being cheesy.  Pulling the majority of their set from Something released back in February, the show flowed beautifully between the faster and slower songs.  If the show had one downfall, it would be its short duration.  At only 55 minutes, Chairlift could’ve kept the crowd going for another half an hour.

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