Sunday afternoon my nine year old and I braved the cold and headed to Addendum Books in St Paul to see Koo Koo Kangaroo. It was a mini-concert and book signing. This review isn’t for existing fans. (Here’s my review for them: It rocked. Small crowd. Short set. Tons of room to dance. No Awesome Rainbows or Driving in the Minivan – but good Cat Party.) This review is for parents who don’t know about Koo Koo Kangaroo.
Koo Koo Kangaroo is a kids’ band that suits adults. Some jokes are a little reminiscent of Rocky and Bullwinkle – they are funny and go right over the head of the primary audience. But most of the humor is good natured, off the cuff remarks about what’s happening around the dance floor. Band members Bryan and Neil are generally the butt of the jokes. Most songs are about a minute long – so no annoying chorus, which is what usually kills me with kids’ songs. They write about what kids know – friendship bracelets, unicorns, PB & J, pirates and more. They rock a drum machine background music thing and shout their songs. Oh and they invite the crowd to shout too. As an added plus, most songs come with actions that take about four seconds to get. So everyone can feel like they’re in with the in crowd.
Bryan and Neil seem genuinely interested in reaching every kid in the crowd. Today after the planned set list, we all sang a brief happy birthday to someone turning one. Lots of kids got high fives and it seemed like most kids were dancing. I have noticed that the crowd is generally pretty young (think three years old) at an event at a library or book store (although apparently this is their first book store!); the crowd gets a little older (grade school) at an outdoor festival setting. And the crowd gets even older if say the band is playing with Frank Turner.
The bonus today was the focus on their new book, Unicorns R Real, which is also a song. I asked my nine year old (Aine) what she thought. She thought the pictures were awesome, the story was just like the song and she liked the book. You have to like a book that lets you know that unicorns poop glitter!
Rumor has it the band will be playing more all ages shows in the Twin Cities early 2014. So for parents of young kids who need to get out and don’t want to get a babysitter to see music, keep Koo Koo Kangaroo on your radar!
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