CocoRosie at Button Factory

CocoRosie at the Button Factory, Dublin on Wednesday, 2nd of October 2013

The Casady family are a strange brew, from what we can tell. Bianca and Sierra certainly are anyway. The two sisters never finished school; instead they were taken around the States to learn art in the “real world” before settling in Paris to pursue their music career as CocoRosie.

Then there’s their music. CocoRosie have pioneered ‘freak folk’ – though it is tough to pin down their musical genre, especially in a live show – with their two contrasting voices; Sierra’s classical and Bianca’s somewhere between babyish and Bjork. And then there’s the live show itself.

They arrive on a stage – along with a supporting cast of two (one being a beatboxer) – crossed by a washing line full of cloths, wearing prison outfits of black and white stripes. It’s is littered with instruments, including Sierra’s large harp, with a dressing table and large mirror thrown in for good effect. The musicians seem to have little room to work with, but it makes for a fine setting for the weird and wonderful show to come.

Opening up with Child Bride, their vocals seem even more immaculate on stage than on CD. There are times when they seem too good to be true as they hop genre with each successive song.

End of Time, for example, is a fairly mellow electronic number given an extra punch live, pitched in sharp contrast to the piano ballad of Harmless Monster that follows it. That is, until the beatboxer ratchets up the beat to get the already uncomfortably hot room moving. The harp-led Tears for Animals is then followed up by the almost hip-hop After the Afterlife.

Most of the early barrage is from the new ‘Tales of a Grass Widow’ album and the sold out crowd, mostly unfamiliar with it, just nod along in appreciative wonderment. Their smiles are reflected on stage too by a band who seem to be loving what they’re doing.

A cheer goes up for the opening beats of Ana Lama, and the crowd is treated to an audiovisual spectacular, the song particularly demonstrating the fantastic lighting equipment in the Button Factory. It is the first song that most of the crowd know – they take out their smartphones to demonstrate that – and is the first of ‘the hits’ they play.

After the beatboxer gets his time to shine (and prove a divisive figure to the crowd), the band again set to hopping around the genres. Villain is back to the mellow electronic (with a heavy Polica vibe) while Undertaker highlights the real selling point of CocoRosie: the contrasting beauty of the sister’s vocals. K-Hole then comes as a slice of 90s dance music; all that’s missing is someone with a whistle. It’s all very disparate, yet all entirely CocoRosie.

When the band return for their encore there’s a shout of ‘YOU’RE DEADLY’ from a single voice in the crowd. It’s hard to argue with that assessment and, those who might, wouldn’t for very much longer.

Their cover of Kevin Lyttle’s Turn Me On is perhaps one of the oddest things you’re likely to see on stage this year, that is until the improvised dance number they close the song with after Werewolf. Bianca shouts “She’s cunty, she’s super cunty” over the beatboxers beats as Sierra prances around stage in a cross between ballet and soviet dance.

It was a wonderfully weird ending to a wonderfully weird show. A couple of freaky folk brought the freak folk and it was a joy to behold.