The Chalets, The Hot Puppies - Sheffield Fuzz Club - 09/2/06
4/5
By: Rob Webb
It appears that Hot Puppies lead singer Becky Newman was in a hurry to get dressed tonight. She arrives onstage late, and she's got bare feet. Still, you'd expect a band who write odes to Mariella Frostrup and turn them into songs to be a little bit kooky, wouldn't you?
In truth, The Hot Puppies' music is far more straightforward than the manner of Newman's entrance suggests: a combination of PJ Harvey's upfront femininity, de rigueur noughties art-punk and new-wave pop a la Blondie. All with the volume knob turned up to 11.
Although it doesn't work quite as well as it should, they're still spiky enough to hold the attention of tonight's crowd; but then again it is a predominantly male audience. The Chalets, therefore, are a wet dream come true.
Opening with 'A Sexy Mistake', twin pixie-like front-women Peepee and Pony almost cause a testosterone fuelled riot when they grind against one another. With an arsenal of perfect pop songs from debut album 'Check In' at their disposal, they don't need to rely on sex appeal but they throw it in for good measure anyway.
With their breezy harmonies assisted by the two boys on guitars, The Chalets live are a surprisingly potent assault on the aural senses. Their combination of sweet
voices and hard rocking guitars, seemingly incongruous on paper, works well and adds a darker undertone to what is, on the surface, a little bit cutesy and throwaway.
Tonight, though, they're sounding accomplished. The girls swap keyboards on a regular basis, grinning all the while and the boys, sullen in comparison, exchange axes as the set reaches its grand finale. Finishing with their 'Two Chord Song' (a self explanatory title if ever one was heard), The Chalets troop offstage and leave us wondering whether they might just provide the perfect soundtrack to this summer's festival season.
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