If anything was on display at the Hollywood Palladium on Wednesday night, it was three artists who employed three drastically different methods in attempts to get the near-capacity crowd going, all with unique results. Sure, it was easiest for Australian four-piece electronic act Cut Copy, as they were the headliners and the clear reason for most of the crowd’s attendance. But, you couldn’t help notice the grace and simplicity in which they involved the spectators, with frontman Dan Whitford simply stating “let’s dance” on multiple occasions and letting the songs’ unignorable builds and releases to guide the attendees to some form of momentary bliss. The effect was that when the house lights would turn on the audience, a sea of raised hands and jumping bodies were all that could be seen. Surely, better eyesight would reveal smiling faces, beads of salty sweat, and possibly a few dilated pupils.
For Midnight Madness, which sounds closer to a sporting event than a music group, the request to dance and have fun was more than a request. It was a straight order, sometimes even appearing threatening. And while I understand the difficulties in playing to a large audience where people are not familiar with your work, trying to make an audience have fun will never work. People don’t like to be told what to do and people don’t like to be intimidated by the folks on stage. This is a lesson that Midnight Madness needs to learn if they want warmer receptions than they received on Wednesday night. Their brand of horn-driven funky dance music is innocuous enough, and easy to enjoy as background tunes to an already fun night, but Midnight Madness’ stage demeanor left more enemies than friends in their wake at the Hollywood Palladium, which is an unfortunate (and rather uncomfortable) thing.
Washed Out are not so brash to ever attempt such a thing. No, Ernest Greene and four-piece backing band are most comfortable somewhere in the middle, never pushing the tempo or the drama enough for a complete dance-floor release, but, rather, using carefully orchestrated layers and textures to entertain without completely getting the heart thumping. So, when Greene addressed the crowd after a couple songs and asked the audience to “have some fun tonight,” there was a distinct uncertainty in his voice, as if he wasn’t quite sure if the audience was on his side or not. This fear undoubtedly subsided when the audience reacted to oldie “New Theory” (which actually received some return on a request to sing along) and closer “Eyes Be Closed.” Afterward, vinyl copies of Washed Out’s recent Within And Without could be seen in the clutches of certain audience members, indicating that even in third gear, the audience appreciated the set more than they might have shown.
But, the night belonged to Cut Copy, who straight owned the Palladium. Having played venues the size of the Glass House and Music Box when touring In Ghost Colours, their first trip to Los Angeles as a proper headliner came at their biggest venue yet, and they had no problem delivering a carefully balanced serving of older favorites and Zonoscope material. In fact, the audience missed out on a planned second encore when they quickly bolted for the door after the completion of “Need You Now,” which, in the audience’s defense, felt like a set climax, complete with its own dangling lighting and powerful vocal display by Whitford. A second encore would have probably been overkill.
Cut Copy’s energy was infectious, hardly needing to tell the audience to dance or have fun, with Whitford dancing full-out from the opening moments of “Take Me Over” without ceasing for the entirety of the set. Other members of the group proved equally festive, with guitarist Tim Hoey going mad on auxiliary percussion and even climbing atop Mitchell Scott’s drumset to smash cymbals at the climactic peak of “Sun God.” Bassist Ben Browning was usually more reserved, but still provided able support whether it be at his usual instrument or at a giant circuit board-like device that had a message taped-on that simply read “this machine kills fascists.”
All the pieces we carefully put together for Cut Copy to have a completely successful night out, but the glue that held it together was the responsive audience. During “Where I’m Going,” there is that point in the chorus where it sounds like a crowd chanting “yeah” and I wondered going into that song whether the audience would need coaching or whether they would hit their cue. And, without hesitation, the entirety of the crowd chanted and fist pumped at the correct moment without being asked, proving that you don’t need to ask or tell and audience to have fun. If you are having a great time performing, the crowd will likely follow suit. And if not, well, as they say, you can lead a horse to water…
Cut Copy setlist:
Take Me Over
Feel the Love
Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat
So Haunted
Corner of the Sky
Lights and Music
Blink And You’ll Miss A Revolution
Pharaohs and Pyramids
Saturdays
Voices in Quartz
Hearts on Fire
Sun God
Where I’m Going
Need You Now
