The Curse of Cut Copy - LA Style

Cut Copy is one of the most fun bands you can see live these days... seriously. It's a dance party from start to finish, and since they are a buncha Aussies, the partying is pretty serious. They bounce around the stage, do melodramatic ABBA-esque hand gestures, play like an updated New Order (meaning keyboards AND drums & guitars), and are dorky white guys from the Southern Hemisphere with a sincere love and appreciation of '80s synth pop so it isn't the least bit ironic.

Of course, I was made to love it.

The band just did a 2 night stint here in Los Angeles this week, which proved to be more like 1 1/2 nights. Scheduled to play the Henry Fonda Theatre on March 10 & 11, they started their triumphant show Tuesday night, only to get shut down halfway through due to capacity issues. Which seems kind of weird, considering the show was put on by longstanding promoters Golden Voice (Coachella, anyone) and you'd think they would have a clue about capacity issues. Regardless, the fire marshall showed up and shut 'em down. The show and after party were cancelled.

So Wednesday night's show was moved to the brand spankin' new Club Nokia downtown, where there were no such capacity issues. It was my first time at the venue, which I can only sum up as "Eh." It has a large balcony which extends far over the dance floor/general admission area, a set up that always leaves me feeling a bit claustrophobic. But the sightlines were good, and we could see every dorky dance move and chair leap executed by the band onstage.

About 2/3rds of the way through the show though, the upper level sound absolutely cut out. It sounded as if someone had suddenly stuffed my ears with those sensible earplugs. Those one the dancefloor still had full throttle dance party action, but everyone in the balcony suddenly had to hear the show through a pillow. Again, you'd think a sparkly new venue like Club Nokia would have tackled this sort of thing, especially considering they opened with the likes of Beck and BB King on the roster. Whatever. It was just some indie dance band.

That ruled, despite the technical glitch which was fixed within a song or two. Let's hope their next trip to LA goes a little more smoothly!

And here is a video from their latest release, which features the lead singer, cursed by sadness and traveling under a rain cloud of torment. (Um, it's funny. Cuz they're Australians, who have a sense of humor about their white disco trash.)