CSS: Manchester Academy
Artist: CSS
Location: Manchester Academy
Date: 14/12/2007
Rating: * * *
CSS are in danger of becoming overexposed. It’s no longer cool to say you saw them on the January 07 NME tour; you have to have liked them when Lovefoxx had blonde hair and sang in Portuguese.
Metronomy were first on at the Manchester Academy for a pleasant but uneventful 45 minutes. I got bored and went to the toilet only to find fourteen-year-olds with hair like bad architecture and ill-fitting day-glo skinny jeans doing speed. Justice came onstage next and, except for the preppy ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ and ‘We Are Your Friends’ it was normal, dirty electro. This is fine in a club, but in a setting where you have expectations of performance, it became dull.
CSS arrived dressed as presents accompanied onstage by a dancing fat woman attired as a Christmas tree. Lovefoxx sampled Missy Elliot’s ‘Work it’ to great effect, but had previously tested the idea during their stint as Gwen Stefani’s support. This was CSS’s problem; all of it seemed like tired ideas forced on overfamiliar songs. Their new stuff, though, showed great progression; the seductive ‘Alala’ retained its bite when performed live and the encore, ‘Let’s Make Love and Listen To Death From Above’ was as raucous as could be hoped. Live, CSS need more effort and less desperation.
