Last night Amsterdam’s music venue and cultural center Paradiso hosted the gig of CocoRosie.
The band, founded in 2003 in Paris, is formed by sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady, both from the United States. The name of the band comes from the girls childhood nicknames of Coco and Rosie. Their eclectic music has been defined as “freak folk”. At times reminiscent of Björk and Moloko, it incorporates elements of opera (Sierra studied to be an opera singer) as well as hip hop, pop, blues, electronica AND a beatboxer!
The gig was simply captivating! The songs featured vocals from both Bianca and Sierra, among the instruments harp, guitar, piano, flutes, electronic and percussion instruments and various exotic or improvised “noisemakers”.
Countless changes of outfits, unconventional choices of garments ranging from carnival and gothic costumes to long johns and suspenders, loose t-shirts. All purposely hanging on stage on a drying line. And then masks, capes, collars, even aprons to express the girls strong and playful personalities, unconventional style and “so what?” attitude.
The eccentric band delivered a 360 degrees performance where every detail had been taken care of: even the psychedelic make up glowing in the moments of darkness and the on screen visuals during the concert. So much going on, the crowd was completely captured!
In 2004 the group was signed to independent label Touch and Go Records. Since then CocoRosie have released five full-length albums and are very active in terms of touring: they have played across Europe, the United States and elsewhere, and it wasn’t their first time performing in Amsterdam! Some of the girl’s tracks have been used for the soundtrack of Miuccia Prada’s spring 2006 show. So yes, definitely a concert worth seeing.
If you want to see CocoRosie while they are still in the Netherlands there is still a chance: on Sunday September 22nd they will perform at the Incubate Fest in the City Theatre in Tilburg!
