Getting the weekend groove started early, the doors at at Echostage opened Friday at 7:00 p.m. for London’s infectious band Hot Chip, with opener Sinkane.

Sinkane is the project of Sudan-born, Ohio-raised Ahmed Gallab, the multi-instrumentalist who has been getting attention for a few years now– most recently playing Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather, before kicking off a four-city stint opening for Hot Chip. But they aren’t wrapped up after D.C., Sinkane has a lineup of festivals and other performances booked across the U.S. and Europe through the summer.

“Are you guys happy to be alive or what?” Gallab asked the crowd in one of the few moments when he was not playing. Most of the forty-some minute set was constant music, Gallab moving seamlessly between guitar, keys, and vocals.

The best part? The faces on each of the bandmates. Everyone looked like they were having a great time: smiling, bobbing their heads at each other, and Gallab even sticking his tongue out while he played.

Now based in Brooklyn, the electro-funk band has been getting attention for their infusion of ardent vocals and a worldly sound. It’s as if you followed an experimental recipe– take several parts electro, psychedelic, R&B, and even a little country influences (sprinkle in other influences as you recognize them, maybe some free jazz and southern rock?), then throw it all in a music blender. The result has you consuming the smoothest smoothie of your grooving dreams.

Sinkane closed their set with their catchy but impassioned single, “How We Be.”

Headliners Hot Chip have been making dance music for more than fifteen years, and are in no way cooling down. Their sixth album “Why Make Sense?” just came out in May, and already has “universal acclaim” with a huge Metacritic score of 81 out of 100. New tracks celebrate the pandemonium of romance and then grieve about what fate the world holds. It’s packed with earworms like “Need You Now” and “Started Right” that get you shaking what your mama gave you.

Interesting tidbit: Both the CDs and LPs of “Why Make Sense?” are printed in 501 different colors and with subtle variations of the design– so every copy of the album will feature completely unique artwork. How’s that for buying something special?

Touring drummer and backing vocalist, Sarah Jones, kicked things off, counting the band into “Huarache Lights.” Through the show, she looked like she might have the most physically-demanding position on stage. She even shared online after their Boston performance about how hungry a Hot Chip set makes her, tweeting this challenge:

I challenge any of you to do a gig with @Hot_Chip and not eat the pizza in the dressing room afterwards

— Sarah Jones (@sarahsausages) June 5, 2015

But she’s not the only one doing work while performing. Guitarist Al Doyle wiped sweat from his face. Lead Alexis Taylor, got hot enough to take off his Willie Nelson bandana and fake braids he started the show wearing. And later, the whole band joined together in synchronized dancing across the front of the stage to “Over and Over.”

Playing a dozen songs before taking a break, with seven musicians on stage, Hot Chip rolls deep. It was a lineup with plenty of old favorites and their new hits, with stunning lights layered over the whole experience. Their music brings the club to you, but it sure doesn’t hurt to meet them at the club when the chance comes around. A Hot Chip show is a dance prescription for a proper Friday night.

So how does one close out a crazy-fun, high-energy show like this? Bring out the opener, and together cover an all-time favorite like Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark.”

Lucky for D.C., the music wasn’t done for the night when the house lights came up. The great part about an “early show” at Echostage wrapping up around 11:00 p.m., is two other local venues had time to host some very special guest DJs Friday.

At Flash, with their brand new rooftop, vocalist and percussionist Joe Goddard spun as one-half of The 2 Bears (ironically, Hot Chip’s new video for “Huarache Lights” almost looks like it could have been filmed upstairs at Flash: see for yourself). Sinkane went to H Street to play the Moneytown show at Little Miss Whiskey’s, featuring funk and old school soul.

After all, at the risk of being repetitive, why make sense? When Hot Chip is in town, we are all just dancing in the dark.

Blog by Cristina Rayas, photos by Toby Mues