CSS
Islington Assembly Hall, London

CSS first stormed the stage some 20 years ago when MySpace and the music press was still a thing. They rose to fame in part via the internet and as co-headliners of 2007’s NME Indie Rave Tour. Hailing from Sao Paolo in Brazil, they circled the globe bringing their mix of indie dance rock to the masses on a mission to party, and they partied hard.

The night opens with a tongue firmly in its cheek as Eurodance classic We Like to Party by Vengaboys plays out over the sound system before the band launch into their standard opener CSS Suxxx. Within seconds the room is rocking and the party has truly started. 

And it continues for a good 80 minutes as a mixture of music, missives, anecdotes and anthems ring out. 

Highlights include Hits Me Like a Rock where lead singer Lovefoxx sheds her Pierrot-like outfit to reveal her traditional catsuit look extolling the audience to get dancing, which they dutifully continue. 

There’s an interesting anecdote about Bobbie Gillespie of Primal Scream, a quiz about Motorhead and Madonna, but mostly its track after track of top indie dance beats that make you move.

City Grrrl gets a grand reception as the keys and guitars mix to keep a good groove going. There’s a mass wave-a-long during This Month, Day 10 and the audience roars as the opening bars of Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above ring out. 

This is CSS back on tour and on track. For such a happy-go-lucky band — they did have a massive split when founder member Adriano Cintra left the band — the four female members run a tight ship shifting between guitar, bass and keyboards while Lovefoxx prowls the stage.

Billed as the It’s Been A Number Of Years tour a quick encore sees the band receive rapturous applause, not so much CSS Suxx as CSS rocks. 

See: cssmusic.club