Recap Chromeo at the Ogden Theatre

It’s easy to win over a Friday-night crowd, especially a sold-out one. Even better if that audience is full of clamorous, college-aged youth who two-step to the bar and double-fist drinks like it was a fire sale. By the time Chromeo meandered onto the Ogden Theatre stage—around 11 p.m., after a lively set from Mayer Hawthorne—the kids were nice and flush. A metronome could have set them off.

The Canadian, electro-funk duo instead opened with a rousing chant of “Chroo-mee-ooo! Oh-oh!”—the Broadway chorus-like intro from 2007’s Fancy Footwork—then followed that with the title track from the same record. People responded almost instantaneously with arms in the air and a wave of jerky body movements. With the theater so packed, shoulder-to-shoulder and hip-to-hip, the let-loose throng was uncomfortably constricted, like a bottlenecked salmon migration sated with all the same hormonal frenzy.

Chromeo talked minimally between songs and with few interruptions, if any at all. The crowd members kept up through most of the show, singing along where they could (to the club hits, “Tenderoni,” “Hot Mess,” “Bonafied Lovin’,” et al) and improvising everywhere else. Chromeo has a well-rehearsed live act, one that’s been worked out over the last few years with constant touring and huge festival shows. (Two of those performances were at a mile high: 2009’s Monolith and this year’s Westword Music Showcase.) The guys know how to get a party started, and more imperatively, how to keep it moving at a steady pace. And even though Friday’s set list seemed dubiously recycled from earlier gigs, the continuous tempo and flourish of live instrumentation made for an animated experience nonetheless.

The guys themselves—David Macklovitch (a.k.a. Dave 1) and Patrick Gemayel (a.k.a. P-Thugg)—are easy caricatures: Macklovitch in a gray mod suit and skinny tie; Gemyal in a loose-fitting, plaid button-up with a Nuggets cap. They were like the Upper West Side meets the West Side, dance-party ambassadors who welcomed anybody and everybody. But for all their work and goodwill, by midnight the crowd started to turn. It was a Friday night after all, and the extended set was definitely starting to kill the mood for some. One guy, about midway through the third encore song, turned to his friend and said what most were probably thinking, “Lipgloss?” Late-night adventures and cheaper drinks awaited, and not even Chromeo could win over that.