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The Ting Tings, Starlight Ballroom, March 19
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The Ting Tings, Starlight Ballroom, March 19
'If you can't dance to this song, I don't think you can dance to anything.'
So began the encore of the Ting Tings' third Philly concert to date; so, too, began nearly every other pulsing song on the Brit duo's set list. It seems that frontlady Katie White gets her kicks ' and adrenaline ' from indiscriminately declaring that dancing is the most important thing you could be doing. And for one sweaty night inside the Starlight, everyone believed her.
Imagine White and drummer/vocalist/DJ Jules de Martino as a sort of younger, more hyper Mates of State ' they've got that charming chemistry, but are unhindered by the weight of such things as babies and responsibility and folk music. Sure, they've got gorgeous harmonies up their sleeves for special occasions, but sometimes banging a drum as hard as you mother-fucking can is just as effective.
Read more Ting Ting things after the jump.
That was the case with the band's most-hyped 'Shut Up and Let Me Go,' which came in close to the end of the too-short 45-minute set. White made sure our hands never left the air and our heels never lingered on the floor as she wailed away, pitch-perfect and full of that Brit-pop moxie that makes us unable to look away from her. Oh, and there was cowbell. Lots of cowbell.
'We Walk,' "Great DJ" and encore 'That's Not My Name' were there, of course, as were the majority of the Ting Tings' debut album, 2008's We Started Nothing. The dancing never stopped, even when the inexplicable heat of the Starlight made us all wish we hadn't been wearing our hipster-concert outfits. Damn those skinny jeans.
When it came time for sweet, melodic 'Traffic Light,' White got coy: 'This is how we do a slow song,' she cooed, swaying behind the mic as de Martino's mellow-for-once beat settled in.
Keep in mind, though, that "Traffic Light" is an intentional aberration for the in-concert Ting Tings, whose stage versions of their songs are way dancier, bouncier and amped-up than anything you'll find on the album (with the exception of "That's Not My Name," which you should probably go download right now). "Make a decision, a precondition/ We got the choice if it all goes wrong" gets a dance-punk pulse, and here we are ' teenagers, their parents and those of us who happily fall somewhere in between ' making upside-down hearts with our hands as if we had no other choice.
The nice thing about these two ' other than being lovely to look at ' is that they don't seem to mind playing the most-requesteds ("Shut Up and Let Me Go" from an April 2008 iPod commercial; "We Started Nothing" from Gossip Girl) for their adoring, pop-culture-manic audience. After all, it's another opportunity to dance, and dancing is the most important thing.
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