CSS @ Bar Broadway

2nd Jan: CSS, Teenagers in Tokyo (sorta) & Ro Sham Bo Dj's

As Tuesday Night rolled in like the proverbial monkey leeching on every indie kids back, the hangovers and sleep deprivation were put aside, Cansei De Ser Sexy were in town. Many of the faces were backing up from a big New Years as they were backing up from a big Field Day experience, but none the less, Cansei De Ser Sexy were in town. In a manner probably too wreckless for double demerit season, I feverishly looked for a park as 9pm quickly came and past. From the outside of Bar Broadway, you could have been forgiven for not realizing CSS were in town, there was initially no queue or crowd of excited people, just your usual trendys ensuring they got a spot close to windows so everyone could see just how fly their t-shirt was.

Brandishing a Touch N Go shirt representing the 2000 and something band Chris and myself are still in but have only recorded one song, I walked into Bar Broadway aware that I was better than you, and so was my band.

By the time I had got to Bar Broadway a queue had began, however still quite subdued. Did they realise they were seeing CSS? Judging by the lack of enthusiasm outside the venue, I could have been mistaken for turning up to just another Eskimoe Joe concert.

Once inside I had sadly missed CSS’s Australian little sisters, Teenagers in Tokyo. After hearing so much about them I had only just began to bop to their musical stylings when the last note rang and they said their farewells to the stage. Quick as a flash the Ro Sham Bo DJ’s (hope I spelt it right) jumped into an excited set, this was their time to shine and it wasn’t half obvious they had emplored all their friends to come down and wave at them with that ‘I know the DJ’ swagger. None the less Ro Sham Bo weren’t here to tell you how cool they are, they were here to make some noise and their selection of music was at times a little safe with M.I.A mash ups & “My Love” but overall quite in tune with what the people wanted and what the people didn’t know they needed. While they didn’t romp the floor Van She Tech style, they certainly did the most with a fleeting set in DJ terms.

With my parking set to expire at 12pm and my car to be impounded at Bar Broadway shopping centre, I didn’t have luxury of letting the anticipation and mystique of being kept waiting for 40 minutes the time to set in. However if it were not for my girlfriend Amanda and bestie (yeh I said bestie you dicks) Val, the show may not have gone on at all as unbeknownst to Amanda & Val, the little brazilian honey who was short on toilet paper was indeed the Love fox herself, Lovefoxxx. Anyways, someone gave Ro Sham Bo the cut it signal and they did, light roars followed.

Cansei De Ser Sexy came out and go straight to the point. Lovefoxxx set the tone that anyone with motion sickness was not welcome and should leave before she sent them into convulsions. I was expecting Cansei De Ser Sexy to be a lot of things, but a racous, at time feverishly rocking and others dirty, gritty electro was not entirely on my list.

The satirical CSS Suxxx was the first cab of the rank, while a tad predictable it couldn’t have fit anywhere else in the set and the simplicity of the words meant everyone could join in and to kick start the rest of the set CSS started off with the comparatively slower electro grooves before stunning me with a display of impressive gritty rock n roll type performance. The old cliché chick rock stuff can be confidently thrown out the door and maybe I’m just a fool for expecting them to be soft (all the girls go ‘sexist male prick’) but I almost forgot, these girls are from Brazil and the only thing soft about these good looking ladies is their token fat friend who was pretty keen on interrupting Lovefoxxx when she was talking.

Month Day 10 was a highlight of the early parts of the set with the dance Lovefoxxx got the crowd to get into not only being so cool and simple, but really cool and simple! I can’t really describe it but it involved some hands in the air followed by two quick air pushes to that bit with the atmospheric synth (bad phonics: be now noew deda deda dedu).

While the singer from the Vendettas has had me from hello, my excitement at seeing Lovefoxxx was not as high, however once again, another amazing female frontwoman has stolen my heart. As a psychology student this could suggest my infatuation with dominant women, and I guess a psychodynamic approach would probably insist is has something to do with my mother, but who really knows. Maybe I am just a nob (clinical term is nobious ignoramous).

My point being, CSS really turned it on for the ground and it was clear for me to see that CSS have cut their teeth as a band; whatever happens in recording was a superfluous addition to their already impressive credentials.

The set had the obvious finale of Let’s Make Love & Listen to Death From Above which they adapted to Lets Undress & Listen to CSS and it really just instilled a great sense of appreciation and increased love for a band already very close to my heart. I felt they lived up to the hype, but didn’t concern themselves with poxy moves or over the top grandeur; they just rocked it the best way their little brazilian asses know how.

Sadly I couldn’t tell you if there was or was not an encore performance as I had to make a respectable dash for the parking lot. But they had gone through almost all the songs on their debut so the only thing I could think they would have dropped was their Madonna cover “Hollywood”.

Rough (probably wrong) Setlist
CSS Suxxx
Alala
Fuck off is not the only thing you have to show
Meeting Paris Hilton
Month Day 10
Alcohol
Patins
Off the hook
Art Bitch
Music is my hot hot sex
Let’s make love and listen to death from above