CSS live at Heinken Green Spheres, Savoy, Cork

Garlanded with muchos praise by the hipster cliques for their edgy electro-pop, Cansei De Ser Sexy arrived in Cork for a Heineken Green Sphere’s event promising a riot of colour and noise. Their judicious Brazilian blend of indie-pop sentiment and brazen electronics attracted a full and expectant house.
One thing you can say for certain: CSS give it socks. The indefatigable mania of impish frontwoman Lovefoxxx is the fuel that drives the show. She shrieks, she stage-dives (as early as the second song!), she gyrates, she changes costume, she powers the party by the sheer dint of her own human dynamism. The remainder of the six strong group perform their roles with a benign effectiveness, but they rarely seek, perhaps wisely, to challenge Lovefoxxx’s monopolising of the limelight.
Beyond the pocket-rocket frontwoman, there is a distinct pop sheen to the Sao Paulo band’s set. In the same sense that Hot Chip manipulate house to successfully appeal to dance music arrivistes, electro flourishes underpin most CSS tracks, giving their guitar-hooks a different edge.
The pneumatic, grubby beats of ‘Alala’, the more agitated, disco-tinged ‘Bezzi’, and synth driven ‘Aucho Um Puco Bom’, all serve up taut, propulsive rationalisations of CSS’s crossover attraction. A faithful and boisterous cover of L7’s ‘Pretend That We’re Dead’ accentuates the point that these are rockers cheekily masquerading as electro musicians, and not the other way round.
Only one caveat: tonight a flaccid soundsystem succeeds in draining at least some of Cansei De Ser Sexy’s powderkeg vim and vigour. Without that handicap, what’s good could be so much better.
The anthemic ‘Off The Hook’ and the ska-flavoured delirium of ‘Alcohol’ are carried off with punky fervour nonetheless. There’s even a hint of geeky, Devo-style detachment on the punchy ‘Art Bitch’. Lovefoxxx, after removing her odd purple tarpaulin, parades herself – an intoxicating vision, in an eye-catching electric-blue leotard.
The audience is kept waiting for CSS’s calling card, ‘Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above’, a euphoric electro banger. Predictably when it’s delivered as a final encore, it prompts the wildest, hand-flailingest, dancefloor exhortations the night has seen.
For a brief window, even Lovefoxxx is over-shadowed.