Chairlift: Pop trio puts on electrifying show

An intimate crowd of about 60 gathered in a black box theater on the Mershon Auditorium stage at the Wexner Center for the Arts Monday night for a performance by the Brooklyn trio Chairlift.

The concert marked the group’s first performance in Columbus and their second-to-last night in the U.S. before heading to Europe for a month-long tour.

“I’m most excited to go to Berlin,” said Caroline Polachek, lead singer for the band. “I’ve heard so much about the underground art scene there.”

Polachek awed fans with her singing in “La Flying Saucer Hat,” a song in French. “Well, it’s mostly French,” she said. “I just stick English words in there wherever.”

The electric pop band will be thrilling Europeans, much as they have Americans, with their fierce sound, experimentation and clever lyrics. They have opened for fellow Brooklyn band MGMT, and just finished a 10-day tour with Yeasayer.

Initially the band was a project with Polachek (vocals, tambourine, synthesizer, keyboard) and Pfenning (guitar and vocals) that started in October 2005 at the University of Colorado, with plans for making music for haunted houses. Patrick Wimberly (drum, bass, keyboard) joined the band in 2007 to complete the sound.

The band is on an indie record label, but rejects the label of “indie band.”

“We’re just not into the whole folk, plaid-wearing, PBR drinking thing,” Polachek said. Instead, the group prefers to be categorized as a pop band. “We see pop as something that’s been going on for 50 years. Anything you can get stuck in your head is pop,” Polachek said.

Apple found their tunes catchy enough to use in their iPod nano television ad. Their song “Bruises” plays throughout the commercial, and thanks to that exposure they have become big in Japan.

Polachek’s voice is phenomenal and her stage presence is captivating. “I’ve never played for a slumber party before,” she joked to the lounging audience from the stage after the first song. But by the end of the performance there was not a single sitting body in the crowd.

“I liked that the room was not super empty or super packed,” Pfenning said. “I like it [because] it’s comfy and not intimidating.”

Wimberly switched from drums to bass to keys and Pfenning controlled the sampler which was used on three songs.

“We like to use a sampler [because] at any given time we can only play three things. We like an electric drum sound and we can’t do that onstage,” Polachek said.

The merging of sounds and the diversity both in Polachek’s voice and the music created a great experience. The lights were kept low, per Polachek’s request. The audience fed off of her energy and vice versa.

Their songs were fun, dark and sometimes trippy. “We like a heavy dose of mystery,” Polachek said.

Their debut album, “Does You Inspire You,” is out in stores now.

Abigail Miner/The LanternAaron Pfenning, song writer, vocalist and guitarist for Chairlift, played Monday night at the Wexner Center.