Cut Copy came to DC to play — and they weren’t going to let something like being down a member stop them. Although he is present on the band’s current US tour, guitarist Tim Hoey was too ill to perform for their recent date at 9:30 Club, and so frontman Dan Whitford and company soldiered on without him.
The result was a damn good show that breezed by like a chill rave full of friends.
At 9:30 Club on Nov. 19, Cut Copy hit 9:30 Club for a date to promote their most recent album, Moments. Although they did indeed highlight their lovely new record, Cut Copy couldn’t escape their phenomenal breakout album, In Ghost Colours (2008), which dominated the show.
That was okay with the audience, who were ready for anything Cut Copy had to offer. Dan (vocals, synths), Ben Browning (bass), and Mitchell Scott (drums) reconfigured the songs live to eschew the guitar, and the result was a bass-heavy groovefest that sat very well with the crowded club. Cut Copy opened the show with some numbers from In Ghost Colours — “Visions” and “Nobody Lost, Nobody Found,” and later spread songs from Moments thickly into the middle section of the show.
At the midpoint of the show, Cut Copy presented their latest single, “Belong to You,” a pleasant, psych-tinged pop song that kept spirits high throughout 9:30 Club. The brightly soaring song made very smart use of Dan’s pleasing vocal timbre.
Watch the official music video for ” Belong to You” by Cut Copy and Kate Bollinger on YouTube:
![Cut Copy & Kate Bollinger - Belong To You [Official Video]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_zoXZj19yUA/hqdefault.jpg)
Me and other long-time fans of Cut Copy were overjoyed to experience some selections from Bright Like Neon Love (2004). Dan was clearly a bit nostalgic for the band’s debut album, as Cut Copy first toured the USA 20 years ago in support of it. And so we got “That Was Just a Dream” early it the show, and the two songs “Time Stands Still” and “Future” as a continuous medley that served as a top moment of the show. The medley hooked the audience and held us in a vibe through its extended outro in a mix that truly transported the listener.
It was mildly surprising that Cut Copy skipped their last album — 2020’s Freeze, Melt — entirely but the rest of their studio catalog received at least one song in concert. Early in the show, the band performed “Standing in the Middle of the Field” from Haiku from Zero (2017); and close to the end, they added “Meet Me in a House of Love” from Free Your Mind (2013). The two-song encore included the much-loved “Need You Now” from Zonoscope (2011).
But again, In Ghost Colours dominated the show, and there were to songs that any fan of Cut Copy would always and forever what to hear: “Hearts on Fire” and “Lights and Music.”
Watch the official music video for “Hearts on Fire” by Cut Copy on YouTube:
Both songs provide remarkable comfort but also stand apart for their clever hooks. While the songs feel familiar, they also are exciting. They have become so embedded as part of the new wave resurgence of the 2010s that you could readily believe Cut Copy wholly invented the sound. Rather, they totally mastered it — and you have to imagine that Dan Whitford’s background as a DJ filled him with such great ideas that they sprang forth fully formed when he want to record them.
As impressive as their early albums were, Cut Copy successfully make their case as masterful musicians with their latest album, and their 9:30 Club concert was a complete winner from start to finish. It helped that they recruited Norwegian Ora the Molecule to open. The solo project by Nora Schjelderup really set the mood with some fantastic Italo disco and space pop. She dressed as if she were a dance floor astronaut in a low-budget retro-futuristic film from the 1960s, and she sang beguiling disco songs — all in English except for “Loveskatt” to close the show in her native Norwegian.
Ora the Molecule opened with the very Euro “Intergalactic Dance.” Check it out on YouTube.
Watch the official music video for “Becoming a Human/Intergalactic Dance” by Ora the Molecule on YouTube:
This was a terrific night to get out and dance, and Cut Copy really delivered.
Here are some photos of Cut Copy performing live at 9:30 Club on Nov. 19, 2025. All pictures by Mickey McCarter.
Here are some photos of Ora the Molecule opening Cut Copy at 9:30 Club on Nov. 19, 2025. All pictures by Mickey McCarter.
