On a May Monday night at the Foundry in Philadelphia, we found ourselves dancing to the groovy, weird vibes of CSS. While I bought the tickets mostly on a whim, it was genuinely one of the best concerts I’ve been to this year. This is just a brief review of why the show was such a
CSS is a Sao Paulo-based band that consists of four women and a male drummer. The acronym CSS stands for Cansei de Ser Sexy, or “Tired of being sexy,” which comes from something Beyonce once said. The band started in 2003 and released their first album in 2006 (self-titled, containing the majority of their hits). They can best fit into the mid-2000s indie sleaze sub-genre, but there are definitely some dance-punk and club-friendly bops in there. They have an undeniable “Myspace” aesthetic (more on that later) - but fundamentally, the band makes fun, dancey, “naive” and silly-sounding music. The song that best summarizes the band’s vibe is “Music is my hot hot sex” - it's dancey, encapsulates their spirit, and has that fun English/Portuguese mix.
I first discovered this band in the midst of the pandemic with my partner - we were on the search for dancey tunes to create our own little club in isolation, and CSS very much satisfied that need (the other song that embodies this time period is “Ice Cream” by New Young Pony Club). So strangely, the band reminds me specifically of the least dancey moments of the last decade. When I saw the tickets, I determined we needed to go.
Anyway, the Foundry is a small venue, probably with more than 100 people but under 150. The opening artist was Sloppy Jane, who, along with her band, had a very Broadway showbiz type of vibe. The crowd seemed diverse and random, not necessarily cut from the same cloth, which is nice because that means the audience all has their own reasons for going there rather than being part of a scene (in fact two women were in the crowd flew to Philadelphia from Florida).
CSS came on stage dancing to the Vengaboys’ “We like to Party” played, you know, the 6-flags commercial song, and the four of them took their positions. The lead singer, Luisa Matsushita AKA Lovefoxx, embodied the energy with a raincoat and a thermos with throat coat tea (it was only in the writing of this that I learned Lovefoxxx is the female vocal lead in Kavinsky’s "Love Call," i.e., that other song from the movie Drive, which is a wild connection). The other members of the band all have their auras about them, and one can tell the four of them have a long, loving history. The band opened with the first track on their first album CSS sucks, which easily had the whole audience chanting along to the title “C! S! S! Sucks!”.
The energy was instantly frantic as quickly jumped into their key banger - “Music is My Hot Hot Sex.” The band was jammy and playing their parts in precision. There was a projector casting images behind them - clips from anime, cat videos, video games, and HTML write-ups that were in sync with the lyrics. This is what I meant by that Myspace aesthetic. Lovefoxx was clearly having a lot of fun, smiling as she danced, and stripping off her raincoat to reveal a kawaii dress complete with a pussy-bow.
While all concerts one attends have a story, the underlying story behind this one seemed straightforward - fun. The music was fun, the whole band was fun, and the audience was having fun. Quite simply, the aesthetic was weird, true to yourself, unabashed, fun. And, don’t quote me on this because I know nothing of the inner machinations of this band, but the tour itself seemed more in pursuit of fun rather than anything else - the four members clearly all wanted to be there, were happy playing, and for a band that hasn’t released any music in 10 years, 20 years since starting, there wasn’t any pretense: they just wanted to play and live out the role of rock stars. Lovefoxx even spoke to this directly, saying “We are not at our peak” and insisting that music was a form of cultural communication and joy.
The theme of time was explicitly present in the performance as well - At one point, an audience member handed the band photos from the last time they played in Philly, an instant reminder of their past selves. Lovefoxxx even discussed the origin of the band in 2003, saying all she wanted to do was play one show, and things got swept away from there, recalling the first band practice in Sao Paulo, wearing a Motorhead T-shirt afraid of being accused of being a poser. The band tried playing a Sleater-Kinney cover but, not knowing the words to “I Want to Be Your Joey Ramone,” sang J-Lo lyrics over it. Lovefoxx continued about how weird it is that the songs that they wrote as horny 19-year-olds are now being repeated and embodied again by their future selves, now 40. It shows the inherent timeliness of music, how a song, once created, enters this strange circular pool of time.
Another takeaway from the concert was the idea of “teenageness” and what it means to embody that. I feel like embracing childlike play and whimsy is often acknowledged, but teenage play is so often neglected - the awkwardness, the cringiness, the unabashed horniness. Those themes, accompanied by the weird projected images, all inspired this sense of teenage wonder - and Lovefoxx acknowledged this as such a lovely spirit to embrace, and she, a 40-year-old woman diving into an audience at a small venue on a Monday night, embodied it. This was the perfect segway into the song “Teenage Tiger Cat”
The band ended with two of their hits, “Art Bitch” and “Alala,” and the whole crowd was dancing, filled with unmistakable fun and joy. Lovefoxxx stage dove into a not that well stocked or prepared audience, solidifying CSS’s memory into the entire audience. Overall, a wonderful show, band, and performance.