CSS (London Astoria, 22/04/07)

Despite their questionable musical credentials, Brazilian disco-punks CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy) put on a fun, if unspectacular performance on Sunday. Their whole show hinges on the sheer charisma of unfeasibly attractive frontwoman Lovefoxx and most of the time she’s able to carry it off, covering the cracks in a band with perhaps more sass than actual talent. The crowd was certainly up for it though, with what seemed to be half the audience attempting to crowd-surf at least once and naturally things went completely mental during “Lets Make Love And Listen From Death From Above.” Tilly and the Wall were disappointing as supports, although not through lack of effort on their part- they just suffered from the appalling sound mix the Astoria seems to inflict on all its opening acts. Hipper-than-thou electro duo Ratatat were marvellous though, despite their heavy reliance on backing tracks- at their best they were like a fusion between Explosions in the Sky and 65daysofstatic, which I don’t need to tell you is a pretty sweet proposition. The next week or so is looking pretty good for gigs too- bohemian popsters Peter and the Wolf, “Amelie” composer Yann Tiersen and best of all, the one and only Cat Power. Life is sweet!