Tuesday night: it’s another highly-anticipated Green Mind night @ the Portland – and though they’re competing with a trendy charity night at the Junction, there’s a band on the roster that have completely packed the place out: It’s the ‘uber-cute-bubblegum-punkpop’ Chalets…
 | | The Chalets: copyright Mark Danson |
The night kicked off with a quirky support from Betty & The Werewolves & Tigs, both playing to a full house (complete with its lovely new air-con) of appreciative fans, but then the crowd somehow managed to double in size for the headliners. Several thinly-veiled attempts at double-entendre involving it being ‘pretty tight’ were overheard. The band played a fantastic set - Dublin has kicked out some serious jams with The Chalets – with a catchy, tight set of bubbly synths & distortion-laden pop tracks, they managed to impress the crowd with an effortless mix of different styles. Talk to the band, and they’ll offer a wide range of influences and current favourites – the drummer (Dylan) listens to Aphex Twin, the bassist (Chris) is a big fan of Guided By Voices, one of the girls (Pony) nods to 60’s bands such as the Shangri-La’s, and the other to Charlotte Church – interesting choice, but coming from someone with a name like ‘Pee-Pee’, you wouldn’t expect a regular answer.
 | | The Werewolves: copyright Mark Danson |
While they’re happy to acknowledge their obvious likenesses (Le Tigre or the B-52’s are popular comparisons), they’re all a lot more happy to tease each other about their music tastes - whilst Enda (guitar) is absent, the others sneakily insist that his favourite bands are James Blunt and Maroon 5…“Oh god, he’ll hate us for that”. Upon his return, he discovers the plot to humiliate him, and yet plays along, despite the terrifying consequences of being publicly associated with such bands. Or, maybe in secret he really does listen to the smooth, crooning pop-balladry of Blunt et al. Unfortunate but possible.
 | | The Chalets: copyright Mark Danson |
Either way, the abuse they deal each other unveils the chemistry that crackles between them, displayed on record and in their music just as strongly as in their relationships offstage. The songs frequently reflect the hormonal gender differences that they face on the cramped tour-bus: the boys’ habits of constantly eyeing up fans (and never getting any further than that) and the girls’ extensive sexy wardrobes & jokingly-rumoured sexual prowess are all prominent amongst the issues that feature in their lyrics. Given the band’s appearance, these boy-girl conversational lyrics are fantastically well-matched to their lifestyles. They’re obviously a highly image-conscious group, though they say that they’ve actually toned their appearance down since their inception: Chris, chief song-writer, says: “It’s probably 50/50 now, but we’ve got the music more in focus these days. It used to be very image-based”.
 | | Tigs: copyright Mark Danson |
Still, frequently appearing dressed to impress in matching shirts and skirts, and performing songs with little hip-wiggling dances that manage to ooze style without even trying, it’s pretty clear: The Chalets are the personification of the style that the major labels always fail to manufacture: catchy hooks, sex appeal and a limitless supply of ‘cool’. Their debut album, Check In, is planned for release at the start of October on V2 | 
