by Matt Kelchner

Before making the trip back home to Copenhagen, Danish pop group The Asteroids Galaxy Tour stopped by the gritty basement of Underground Arts for the last US show of their tour. Bring Us Together, the band’s third album, was released only a few weeks prior to their journey stateside. Joining them was Leisure Cruise, a young Brooklyn band featuring industry veteran Dave Hodge of Broken Social Scene. While it wasn’t a sold out show, the crowd came ready to for a rare show this side of the Atlantic. Song after song, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour proved that they were worth the trip out.

Leisure Cruise (all photos by Matt Kelchner)

On record Leisure Cruise is primarily Dave Hodge and Leah Siegel. A handful of friends from bands such as Metric, Stars and Blondie lend a helping hand as well. On stage the duo expands to a four piece, adding drums and guitar while Hodge handles all bass and synth duties and Siegel the vocals (as well as some guitar).

Back in May they released their self-titled debut record, featuring a mashup of swelling, atmospheric sounds a la M83 with pop sensibilities similar to that of today’s most popular singers. Friday night they displayed these perfectly. The highlight of their set came towards the end as they played “Earthquake”, a song that personally meant a lot to Siegel. After the last notes of “Double Digit Love” ended and the band began to pack things up unexpected guest, singer Siegel’s adorable and fluffy dog Candy, joined her and the rest of the band to say their goodbyes.

Tourmates The Asteroids Galaxy Tour and Leisure Cruise share many things in come. Both groups boil down to duos when in the studio and both groups expand when on stage. For The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, producer Lars Iversen moves into primarily playing bass while spunky and energetic singer Mette Lindberg sings. They bring in a drummer, guitar player and MPC/synth player to round out the live group (Iversen and touring guitarist Mikkel Baltser Dørig share synth duties as well).

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour played a career spanning set Friday night. Along with showcasing some of the best tracks off their latest offering, they also pulled out older hits from both Out of Frequency (2012) and Fruit (2009). Newer tunes like “Navigator” and “Hurricane” fit well with more seasoned ones such as “Suburban Space Invader” and “Around the Bend”. All had one thing in common, each had the crowd moving and dancing.

After wrapping up the set with “Major”, off Out of Frequency, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour came back out for a two song encore that featured a pair of their best. They started with “Dollars In The Night” and followed up with “The Golden Age”.The Danish group treated their fans Friday night with one hell of a show. Whether it was the energy glowing from Lindberg or the driving beats provided by the guys behind her, it turned Underground Arts into a hot and sweaty dance party. There’s no saying when the next time they will make the trip back to Philadelphia, but they left everyone in attendance Friday night with memories to last until then.