photo credit: arielle gutierrez, weworemasks

Chromeo’s fourth album, White Women, is on its way. After releasing a string of singles that popped a good buzz, they announced the Come Alive tour to warm things up for the summer, including themselves before the release of the LP. Even better news for Houstonians: the Canadian funklordz (their words, not mine!) kicked the tour off in our fair city at the House of Blues.

Hit the jump for the review.

-grizzly


photo credit: arielle gutierrez, weworemasks

Sunday night pushed a musical conundrums upon indie music fans in Houston. In east Downtown, Sleigh Bells headlined Warehouse Live, while Chromeo took it upon themselves to chrome out the stage at House of Blues. Really – it was a win-win on paper, considering both acts are pretty stellar on a live stage.

But from the opening basslines of “Night by Night,” no one in the crowd had any regrets of missing the other show. For a solid hour and some change, Chromeo electrofunked the hell out of the entire venue and had feet and butts shaking in record time. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a show with this much crowd participation, and the duo’s discography is most certainly to blame.

The on-stage personas of Dave 1 and P-Thugg? Yin to the Yang. Each member respectively feeds off of one other’s polar opposite demeanors – Dave with his tall, handsome charm and P with his husky, bossed up presence. Prior to the show, we had a discussion about this, and it feels right to include: during a Chromeo performance, it’s about 60/40 P-Thugg to Dave. Everyone loves them some Dave, but something about P-Thugg’s multi-instrumental, autotuned bravado really drives the Chromeo selling points home.

The band touched on all of their albums evenly, playing everyone’s favorites from each. For the Fancy Footwork fans, we got a healthy dose of “Bonafied Lovin,” while the Business Casual fans could revel in the “Hot Mess.” Like the new stuff? Good, because they flew through all of em, including a showstopper in “Jealous (I Ain’t With It).”

The last time Chromeo was in Houston, they played a hot summer afternoon at our wonderful Free Press Summer Fest. This time around, it was a Chromeo show the way it was meant to be seen – flashy and gaudy, with an elaborate mirror-centric stage set up, chromed out guitars and a lot of leather. By the end of the set, nobody even remembered that there were technical difficulties or that the show ran late. And they damn sure felt that they made the right show selection. Til next time, Funklordz.

[SETLIST]

Intro
Night by Night
Hot Mess
Tenderoni
Come Alive
Bonafied Lovin’
Sexy Socialite
Momma’s Boy
Over Your Shoulder
Jealous (I Ain’t With It)
Fancy Footwork
Needy Girl
–
Frequent Flyer (New Song)
Don’t Turn the Lights On
You’re So Gangsta