XFM Exposure

There’s something a little bit disconcerting about The Chalets ostensibly twee boy/girl pop. Every time I listen to their rather-good album Check In, I get this slightly nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I’m walking into the witch’s house in Hansel And Gretel. Sure, it’s sugary and delicious on the outside, but behind those candy coated doors hides a child-burning psycho with warty legs.

Similarly, the Irish five are like mouth-watering treats on the surface, but delve a little deeper and there’s some weirdass shit going on there. They play their trademark ladies vs clumsy geek blokes well, and it’s something that has to be seen live to be fully appreciated. ‘Two Chord Song’ makes a welcome return to the set this evening and acts as a good a reminder of the band’s enviable rapport as anything. Still, it’s their creepy bits – the minor-key bridge on ‘Red High Heels’ and pretty much all of the inverted ode-to-wifebeating_ ‘Love Punch’_ – that really dig their (high)heels into your psyche.

Let us not forget that this has been a year of hard graft for the band, but hey, it’s Christmas: a time of giving. Thusly, once the female quotient of the audience have been invited on stage for a dance-fest (cue shouts of “No you CAN’T! You’re not a LADY!” at various hapless males), it’s pressies time and a box full of 7” singles are jettisoned into the adoring crowd. What a thoughtful bunch.

A transcendent night of music and fun comes to a close and the Barfly is visibly swooning under the spell of its hosts’ charms. This has been a year well spent for The Chalets and they’ve turned out to be a real Cinderella story. Here’s hoping that when the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve their party outfits won’t fade and 2006 will burn just as brightly for them.