Hotels play Bumbershoot's EMP/SFM Sky Church
From the very first notes of their set in Bumbershoot's EMP/SFM Sky Church it’s clear that Hotels have some very gloomy idols. It’s easy enough to trace their slightly depressing synth-rock back through the likes of Editors, Interpol, and, naturally, Joy Division, mining a vein of moody guitar pop that’s still running as strong today as it was in Ian Curtis’s heyday.
Unfortunately Hotels aren’t quite as slick as any of their forebears, and at times they're dwarfed by the giant lettering on the wall behind them. Lead singer Blake Madden is as skinny and uncoordinated as you’d expect from a Curtis clone, their keyboardist bears a worrying resemblance to Ricky Gervais in the UK version of The Office, and none of the band look truly comfortable on the rather grand indoor stage. The occasional logistical problems with a venue that has a separate entrance and exit don’t help either, but Hotels simply don’t have the stage presence to match their extravagant light show.
The big saving grace is their music, which oscillates between Interpol-like rock-heavy stomps and an occasional synth-laden New Romantic pop song. They’re at their best somewhere between the two, and a new tune they showcase during the set shows them developing a layered sound that they can truly call their own. They describe their own music as “Sci-fi soundtrack rock”, and on the basis of this performance it’s one Sci-fi movie that I’d certainly want to watch. Where Ricky Gervais fits into it, however, remains to be seen.
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