Boom! The Courettes are Dynamite!

The Courettes, The Caves Edinburgh 01/10/24

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What happens when Brazil meets Denmark to sing songs about Californian sunshine in a grey autumn Tuesday in Edinburgh? The Courettes happen, that’s what. With their ultra-happy pop-rock songs about love, regret, hope, joy, drummers and cigarettes, every night is Saturday night for the Courettes (Martin: Denmark, Flavia: Brazil), and they had the crowd up for a party from the start.

Even before the start to be honest, there were three or four of us at their last Edinburgh gig in 2022 and hearing how much we were blown away by their live show, our enthusiasm was enough to persuade more pals to come along and our gigging group doubled from last time. Bumping into another 2 or three bunches of pals in the venue, it was clearly a well-anticipated gig. Two years is a long time in the Courettes world, they've been gigging constantly since we last saw them – playing all over Europe (several times), Asia, America and even the notorious Barlinnie prison in Glasgow! But that time, and hard work on the road (even though they make it look like an effortless party) has done them good and made then even better. The set was a mix of old familiar favourites as well as equally great new tunes from their new album The Soul Of…, just released last week. (buy it! buy it now!)

They woo’d us from the off with You Woo Me, the opening track from the new release, then Flavia gave us an insight to her love of drummers (other than the fabulous Martin Courette of course) with The Boy I Love (Charlie Watts) and R.I.N.G.O. (pretty obvious), then the uplifting California. The easiest way I’d describe their default sound is a retro, heavily Shangri La’s/Cher/Ronettes influenced pop with a good measure if Northern Soul, but they do go heavy and out there with some of the most entertaining stage-work as well.

Twice during the set Flavia was down off the stage and, still riffing away on her guitar, through the middle of the crowd all the way to the back like the pied piper with all eyes of the crowd on her there and back. She was up on a speaker firing out guitar-shots at the crowd during Boom! Dynamite! and had (most of) the crowd down on their knees (not easy for some) for a dramatic hush during another tune and orchestrated the crowd along with the music perfectly. Martin and his relentless drumming wasn’t left out of the theatrics, as his chat in between was just as engaging and his impressive water-spraying over drums and crowd was expected (from previous gig experience so we were far enough back to be out of the spray zone). And nice to see him drumming at one point with a tambourine instead of a drumstick.

Big cheers from the crowd when asked if anyone knew any motherfuckers (cue: Trash Can Honey), then followed up asking if there were any freaks, misfits or freak/misfits in the audience (yes, lots. cue: Misfits & Freaks and cue “Let’s have a Party! It’s Saturday!”). I could go on describing every song, but the best thing for you to do is; 1) buy and listen to their music (your life will be better for it), then 2) find your nearest Courettes gig and go along for a boost of life-affirming joy.

When the band left the stage at the end of the show and the lights came up, I noticed from the excited post-gig chatter just how good our crowd thought The Courettes were. Our three first-timers were all talking at the same time and grinning ear-to-ear (one thought it was his gig of the year so far, one couldn’t believe the sounds Flavia was getting out of her guitar, and one couldn’t believe he was expected to crouch to the floor so soon after a recent double hip operation!).

I hope it’s not another two years before The Courettes come back to Edinburgh, but if it is I’m sure they’ll have another few hundred gigs under their belt by then and more new material to dazzle us with. Until then I’ll just have to Keep Dancing.

www.thecourettes.com/about

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5FCDr5eRnaeOX9Ub1akXjT?si=b289ae94222b419f