Last weekend i went to see The Chalets. During the week beforehand, I found myself trying to explain to some people what they sound like, and ended up comparing them with bands that I have since found most other people have aswell - Le Tigre and The B 52's. Ne c'est pas? Like a Sunday morning in bed, Ireland has been such a warm and cosy nest for the sad and lonely, heartbroken, distraught, miserable singer-songwriter for a long, long time. But the Chalets are telling us, “You've got no time!”. There's no time for morose moping anymore! It's kind of nice to have a Irish band shaking things up for once. They're like, air the place out, shake off feeling down in the dumps and rip it up on the dancefloor, rih? The band has been described as “twee pop”, but I feel that that is only an element of what they do. As written in a message to the band on their Myspace page, “pop isn't always a bad word”. Indeed. But, their racy lyrics, killer guitar riffs and pounding danceable drumbeats make them deserving of a much broader description than that, which indicates to a much greater extent the rock and roll flair the band has.
The possibility of success in America seems more than likely for the band, especially since one of their deadly songs Sexy Mistake has appeared more than once in episodes of some hit show on the telly over there apparently. (i dunno, ich habe keine television..) It's probable that across the water people will be wondering what the band is going on about when they sing "So you can get your hole" or "get out of my kaks" but they can probably guess. And surely Theme From the Chalets relays a universal experience, everyone has been to a party and muttered these same words in their friend's ear, or under their breath or to the geeky boy in the corner:
boys: Let's fix some cocktails and make them so strong
girls: Let's not get too drunk but we'll play along
boys: Let's put on FM, sit back and relax
girls: You must be joking get out of my kaks
boys: Don't think it's working their coats are still on
girls: Just five more minutes and then we'll be gone
In the week running up to the gig, I heard the Chalets on German radio for the first time: No Style was getting airplay on Radio Eins – the lovely & amazing indie rock / alternative radio station here in Berlin. Some of the other music on rotation at the moment on the station is from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Knife, Ryan Adams and Stars, which reflects the esteem in which The Chalets material is being received with. Recognition is coming from all sides - Steve Lamacq playing No Style as his single of the week upon its release last September, and with their upcoming tours playing alongside Art Brut, the Kaiser Chiefs and We Are Scientists on the agenda the band are soaring at a steady 500 hundred miles an hour towards achieving massive success in 2006. (haha, sorry! i could not resist that.) Vote The Chalets. No, reallyVOTE FOR THE CHALETS! They are up for awards and stuff. They are included in the category for Best Irish Band at the Meteor awards on February 2nd this year.
So, the gig. It took place in Magnet which is a small venue in Prenzlauerberg where I've seen some great/great/goodish shows recently from American Analog Set, The Go! Team and The National respectively.
The support band, which hadn't been advertised, was slightly nondescript until their last song when suddenly they came alive in a blaze of electro rock glory. This served to liven everybody up a bit in preparation for what was about to come. The crowd was a bit random. There were a lot of pot bellied lank-haired middle aged men wearing Hard Fi t-shirts and then gangs of young obsessive set-list grabbing girls wearing t-shirts of bands that haven't been invented yet. Plus a load of young ones from Oireland. Which I think was a surprise for the five young ones from Oireland who had come to play.
Around midnight The Chalets emerged from the crowd and sauntered onstage to hearty applause. There were lots of “Vielen danke!”'s to the crowd for the warm welcome, and then ripping straight into the music, got on with the show.
Theme from the Chalets, Sexy Mistake, Got No Style, Nightrocker, Red High Heels, Feel the Machine, Two Chord Song, Fight Your Kids, Kiss Chasing, Gay Holiday, Check In all made it onto the setlist. Occasionally I've noticed that German crowds can remain quite stoic and unresponsive at gigs. However, as the glockenspiel tinkled alongside the vocal harmonies between the boys and girls, shoulders jutted and hips swayed - the temperature rose quickly. “I feel like a roasting turkey”, said rosy-cheeked Peepee. The band wasn't afraid to joke around a lot onstage, in particular about casserole (“auflauf” in German). “It's on menus here everywhere!”, they exclaimed unbelievingly. Songs were introduced as “Where's the Auflauf” and “the Auflauf Story” - this steaming dish is obviously something that has influenced the band muchly during their previous tour stops in Hamburg and Dresden. Peepee and Pony were a pair of steaming dishes themselves. Their flawless complexions, expertly applied eyeliner and lusciously shiny hair teamed with some very stylish outfits no doubt was encouragement enough for a rowdy member of the crowd to shout, “GO ON YE GOOD THINGS!” at them. Their faces lit up - doubtfully at the “compliment”, but to discover some familiar folk in the audience. “THAT SOUNDED IRISH!” they squealed happily. The band seemed very relaxed, more so than the last time I saw them live - when they played alongside Art Brut and the Rakes as part of the Budweiser Rising Festival last June. Even just looking at what they had chosen to wear, it seemed to me that they weren't trying so hard to be kitsch (and ending up seeming too gimmicky.) They were still dressed up to the nines - not in costumes this time, but fancy outfits nonetheless. In German there is a word to describe girls who know how to dress, which definitely applies to the girl-Chalets: “stylies”. The boys were also very smartly dressed in tight t-shirts and skinny jeans, instead of the suits and leopard skin ties. With the glitzy guitar riffs and luscious bass licks from Enda and Chris teamed with Dylan's tight and fast drumming the crowd was really bopping from the word “auflauf!” Coming back onstage quickly for an encore they claimed to have nothing acceptable enough left to play, but left us wanting more with Michael Kelly.
This is kind of minging, but after the dancing and singing along during the gig, when it was all over and we were hanging about wondering what to do and where to go, I was really thirsty and didn't really mind swigging out of Peepee's bottle of water which had been left discarded by the microphone stand, mostly full and very irresistible to my parched throat. Some German fans pushed me out of the way to get at the setlists – it was lovely of course to see that an Irish crowd had come out to see the Chalets, but Irish fans are a given. They have loads. It was cool to see the Germans fighting over the souvenirs from the night and chatting excitedly about the gig (the Irish had scrambled back to the bar).
I hadn't expected to have a chat with Peepee and Pony, but as I was on the way out I saw that the girls themselves were manning the t-shirt stand, I went over to say hello and thanks for a great gig. They were excited to meet a fellow Dub - “THIS GIRL'S FROM FOXROCK!” - they probably didn't expect any Irish people to be there, well it being a Berlin gig. I realized my preconceived notion that they wouldn't be friendly people, because I found myself surprised at just how sound the two girls are. They wanted to know some good flea markets to check out the next day on their day off and myself and my friend tried to persuade them with the aid of dodgy map to come out for the night instead of sloping off back to their tour bus. Peepee asked how long we'd be hanging around at Magnet, and I regret now not staying behind a bit longer to make sure they found their way, I think I missed a shiny golden glinty mirrorball opportunity to go boozing with the Chalets in Berlin.
i have no photographs from the show that night, but Abstract Boy has!
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