Cut Copy at Stubbs on 6/22/14

Cut Copy at Stubbs BBQ  in Austin, TX

Summer Solstice Show 2014

Photos by Slackerlee

First Posted at The Horn Publication: http://www.readthehorn.com/photos/96021/cut_copy_at_stubbs_bbq_reviewphotos

Here we were on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and two of the best electronic groups in the world are set to play at Stubb’s. The show had been long sold out and an online feeding frenzy of desperate last-minute buyers and scalpers were dishing out for tickets as high as $100.

The festivities began with Cut Copy’s fellow Aussie, Joel Dickinson, of Nile Delta and his band setting the stage for the night with an hour of dance-infused electro for the early birds. Yet, the real momentum started to pick up when LA-based electro wizards Classixx assumed the stage to unleash their highly addictive dance anthems. The music of Classixx, and in particular their album Hanging Gardens, is the ultimate soundtrack to the sun-drenched, pool party-infused summer months, and some of their songs are addictive enough to listen on repeat for hours. However, the stage presence of this duo leaves much to be desired. To give the lifelong friends and co-creators credit, their live show has vastly improved since last year, but for such engaging and dance-centric music the audience was left looking at two men hiding behind soundboards, altering levels and pressing buttons. If you close your eyes and focus on the audio bliss that pours out of the Classixx set, nothing really can compare. Dance ecstasy can be found in such highly addictive songs such as “I’ll Get You” and “Holding On”, while more New Wave influenced tracks such as “Stranger Love” and “Borderline” evoked a more visceral reaction. Finally, the duo topped off the opening dance party with their anthemic “All You’re Waiting For.”

This reviewer has seen Cut Copy more times than he can count, and save for perhaps Chromeo, there is no electronic group that can play on the same field as them in regards to live performances. The Aussie quartet lit up the Austin night with their opening invitation to dance like maniacs with “We Are Explorers” followed by their megahit “Take Me Over.” Despite his almost gaunt frame, lead singer Dan Whitford is an energizer bunny of hand-clapping and audience-interactive dance moves, but the attention can’t help but be shifted to the unpredictable and soap-opera level dramatic dance moves that lead guitarist Tim Hoey brings to the stage. From gyrating his guitar violently against an amp, bashing drum cymbals with his tambourine like a madman, to pouring his beer all over drummer Mitchell Scott throughout a song, Hoey exudes passion for his job.

Cut Copy plowed through a bevy of hits, new and old, from the barnstormer of “Where Im Going”, to the emotional megahits “Hearts on Fire” and “Out There On The Ice”. The last three songs of the main set had the crowd riveted and howling at the moon with the trancelike “Let Me show You Love”, the sexually-oozing “Meet Me In the House of Love”, ending with the self-described visually stimulating “ Lights and Music.” After a short break Cut Copy returned to a deafening roar from the crowd for an encore that included “Feel the Love” and my personal favorite and love anthem “Need You Now,” an ideal ending to a truly unifying night under the moon of the summer solstice. -Lee Ackerley