With their final show at new venue Brooklyn Steel on April 22, indie pop duo Chairlift announced an intimate homecoming show at Baby’s All Right.
While their Brooklyn Steel show features Kristin Kontrol (fka Dee Dee of the band Dum Dum Girls), the Baby’s show saw a bevy of the bands’ different collaborators over their many years as a group doing karaoke on stage.
Starting things off with “Time of My Life” from the film “Dirty Dancing,” local duo Drug Couple tackled Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’ vocals with ease and stunning choreography.
Highlights from the night include singer Simon Doom crowdsurfing during a cover of Pearl Jam’s “Alive,” Jade Delafleur’s sultry cover of Pharell’s “Frontin,” and even Andrew Vanwyngarden of the band MGMT performing The Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” while traversing the stage reading the lyrics on his phone.
MGMT was instrumental in Chairlift’s early days, giving the band an opening slot on one of their first tours.
The energy in the air was electric as the opening MIDI drum track on “Garbage,” ushered singer/keyboardist Caroline Polachek and bassist/drummer Patrick Wembley on stage. Backed by Bryan Keller Jr on guitar/drums and Danny Meyer on saxophone/synth, the band even brought back “Something” tour drummer Jamie to perform a few tracks.
Starting off with material from their debut record “Does You Inspire You,” the band moved into playing more of the hits like “Amanaemonesia” and “I Belong In Your Arms” which Polachek began to sing in Japanese at a fan’s request. In the performance, Polachek and Wembley played on their duo dynamic as both bandmates and family on their final hurrah could.
At one point, the Chairlift vocalist requested the photographers in the front row to move back as “I’ve done all the poses I’m going to do for the night, you have your shot” but more as a way to get the real fans of the group to reciprocate the energy they’re bringing on stage.
Diving into their massive single “Bruises” which first launched them into national recognition on an iPod nano commercial the band performed a few more cuts before leaving the stage. With a resounding call for the group to come back out, Polachek and Wembley came out to perform “Met Before” as vocals and bass before playing infectious fan favorite “Polymorphing.”
Closing out with “Planet Health,” the band went back to their slow-groove roots, that they put to work on their production for Beyonce’s “No Angel.”
