The Casady sisters, since they went through life together as CocoRosie in 2003, have developed a totally unique sound. Yesterday, they were guests at the Holland Festival, at the invitation of their friend ANOHNI. Who, as associate artist introduce this year's festival audience to the female and queer side of the New York art scene. CocoRosie, with their Weird Folk, are wonderful exponents of that. The musical opposites, one classically trained, the other, with a distinctive pinched-off voice, usually nerdy in hand with toys, found objects and electronics, mainly performed music from their latest album from 2020: Put the Shine On.
That album was not universally welcomed with cheers, claiming it was too mainstream, but there was no sign of that at a sold-out Muziekgebouw yesterday. The duo, augmented by keys, saxophone, string quartet and human beatbox, turned on the differences between them a bit more, which gave momentum to the tight, hour-and-a-half-long concert.
Full Mozart
Sierra Casady went full mozart with her operatic voice, while the always more closed-minded Bianca, usually wearing sunglasses, took care of the raps and buttons. The mutual dynamic was heartwarming without getting tacky, mainly due to the visible fun that flowed into the room from the stage.
The sound, already solid on the record, gained some extra earth live, adding intensity to the dynamics of the concert. It was all at the expense of the intelligibility of the lyrics, though. Quite a shame. After all, CocoRosie is a lot more concerned with the world than with themselves in their latest work, and that was now a bit stuck in the wall of sound which they had built up.
Ageing stopped?
Anyway: this concert overwhelmingly showed that the Holland Festival has undergone a very welcome change. I have been following it intensively for more than 20 years now, and for years I saw more or less the same (senior) audiences ageing along with the programme, and while the quality was always high, I often missed the connection with the outside world. That outside world, meanwhile, was sometimes better sensed and reflected at other festivals, such as Bossche Boulevard or November Music.
The change in programming and approach is visible in the halls: the audience this year was remarkably more diverse and younger. It was also more numerous, I feel, though the figures have yet to come in.
Perhaps the best testament to the success of the new direction is the rather extreme anger the festival has evoked in some of the traditional follower audience. So please keep going, because commotion is good for art. Thanks to ANOHNI, the bar has been raised yet again. Curious to see how they go over that next year.
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