Features
Hot Chip Is Red Hot
The band will spend the bulk of the summer hitting the festival circuit in Europe, with stops including Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park in Germany; Glastonbury, O2 Wireless Fest, T in the Park, V Festival and Bestival in the U.K.; Rock Werchter Festival in Belgium; Arvikafestivalen in Sweden; Roskilde Festival in Belgium; Oxegen in Ireland and Benicassim Festival in Spain.
Hot Chip’s fall North American run kicks off, when else?, September 21-22 at The Wiltern in Los Angeles and will hit theatres and clubs around the U.S. and Canada through early October.
Stops include the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas (September 25), the Austin City Limits Music Festival at the city’s Zilker Park (September 26), Metro/Smart Bar in Chicago (September 28-29), Metropolis in Montreal (October 1), Terminal 5 in New York City (October 3-4), Rams Head Live! in Baltimore (October 7) and Variety Playhouse in Atlanta (October 9).
Presale tickets go on sale May 20, with general ticket sales beginning May 23.
Following its North American trek, the band will return to the U.K. for its biggest headlining run yet, with shows in Southampton, Liverpool, Sheffield, Cambridge, Manchester, Brighton, London and more.
Before heading out on their current tour, the members of Hot Chip spent some time rehearsing. Co-founder Joe Goddard said it was time well spent.
“We rehearsed pretty extensively at the beginning of the year, about three weeks pretty solidly,” Goddard told Pollstar. “That’s the most rehearsal that we’ve really ever done.
“That has paid off so well for us on this tour. We’ve just been far more confident and able and having much more fun, because of that confidence on stage. It did require a lot of effort from us all, but we’re really, really enjoying the fruits of that.
Audiences seem to appreciate the extra effort too, since the jaunt through the U.S. and Canada last month sold out well in advance.
“It’s quite an amazing thing,” Goddard said. “We’ve kind of become used to the idea of the shows selling out. That’s kind of a testament to the fact that we’ve been working very hard on the live show for a long time.
“I can honestly say that this tour that we’re on at the moment has been the best tour that we’ve done in our career, partly of what I’ve been talking about and because we’ve got a good crew around us. But I also think the climate in the States at the moment finds people a lot more interested in new electronic music and more willing to go and see bands like ours. We’ve really noticed excellent responses in a lot of cities that we’ve played.”
You can read more of our interview with Goddard, which is filled with surprising facts about Hot Chip, on Monday, when the band steps into the Hotstar spotlight.