Cari Cari live. Wednesday 6 March, Paradiso Amsterdam

Photo Wo.

It remains a sort of mystifying situation. Two young musicians playing to an ageing audience. The music Cari Cari plays obviously speaks to all ages, but not youths. Is the mismatch that apparent? It is seems to be. Except I'm not complaining. In Paradiso Cari Cari in its first proper show in The Netherlands played a fantastic show making its music come totally alive.

It is always a question of importance. How does a duo band present its music in a live setting? For Cari Cari this question is answered by bringing a drummer along. That was not the end of the story. The lighting kit was used in a way to add to the atmosphere in a very positive way. Together with the round screen at the back of the stage, some or a lot of smoke, beautiful contrasts were made taking me at least far beyond the upper venue of Paradiso.

Photo Wo.

'Anaana', Cari Cari's first full length album, was one of my favourites of 2018 and can still be found in the player on a regular basis. It is an extremely strong album, despite the fairly basic use of instruments. At the heart of it all is the surf guitar of Alexander Köck, drenched in reverb. There is some elementary drums added, especially a loudly kicked bass drum in several songs, some percussion, a mouth harp and a didgeridoo, of all instruments. Allow some keyboards here and there and all that remains are the voice of Köck and Stephanie Widmer (or Yamamoto as she kept being introduced). It all comes together in a magical blend of surf rock, the deep desert of Arizona, indigenous chants, mysterious sounds and loads of atmosphere.

Live all that is impossible to recreate but the duo + 1 comes a long way. The obvious charm of the duo wins an audience over easily. The atmosphere created on stage does not allow for losing attention and the music comes alive song by song. Within a few songs there is no memory of the richer studio sound. Cari Cari is what it is about and the songs are all alright, including the older ones from the debut EP.

Photo: Wo.

The surprise of seeing a didgeridoo on stage in that beautiful lighting, but also that 'After The Goldrush' is played on a bass guitar. See the songs come alive on stage. Above all Cari Cari made me feel extremely good and glad to be present. Alexander Köck is a good story teller and got the laughs the story deserved. A young band just packing everything in and leave for Australia and look for gigs once there. It is the closest country to Austria alphabetwise, so why not? You are young only once in your life. Go for it and they did. And Mr. Tarentino? If ever a band made the right music for one of his films to be, it is Cari Cari. The atmosphere certainly is befitting many of his existing movies. Certainly something to aspire to. And if the plan fails, well they played a perfect show for me and I expect many others present that evening. This will not be the last one I'm sure.

Wo.

Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

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