Photo Credit: Nicole Steriovski<\/p>\n
Review by Maya Santow<\/p>\n
Having spent most of the day on November 6, entrenched in uncertainty, sadness, and dread about the political climate, I made my way to Paradise Rock Club, laughing at the irony I felt about going to a Coco and Clair Clair concert that night. Their lighthearted, quippy, pop-rap that I associate with getting ready for a party felt like a far cry from the mournful air that the day had taken on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The duo, composed of Taylor Nave and Claire Toothill, took to the stage for their \u201cGirl\u201d Tour in Boston\u2014-for an audience largely made up of young women and queer people\u2014-not even 24 hours after the U.S. presidential election had been called in favor of President-elect Donald Trump.\u00a0 The pair\u2019s home state of Georgia was one of the seven battleground states to swing in Trump\u2019s favor, with both Nave and Toothill hailing from the suburbs of Atlanta. The performers themselves acknowledged that it had been a \u201csad day,\u201d but with their signature pop-rap sound, casual wit, and a healthy dose of feminine rage, I was surprised to find that they managed to make the night feel a bit less so.<\/span><\/p>\n I arrived just in time for the opener, Sadboi. The Canadian alternative R&B artist, formerly known as Ebhoni, illuminated the room with her glowing stage presence. Paradise Rock Club has an oddly shaped stage, but Sadboi took full advantage of it as she glided through her upbeat, Reggae-influenced tracks with grace and joy, engaging with audience members on both sides of the room to get them dancing with her\u2014no small feat, considering the earlier events of the day. Her impression was felt; the energy left in the space after Sadboi exited the stage felt considerably lighter.<\/span><\/p>\n The night was not without its quirks\u2014though Coco and Clair Clair were slated to take the stage at 9 P.M., DJ Raven \u201cArtson\u201d Aartsen came out instead and played a 45-minute set, often glancing offstage as if waiting for a cue to stop playing at any moment. As it grew later, the dancing in the crowd started to peter out, and impatience crept in, mine included. Though DJ Raven Artson\u2019s set went on a bit too long to feel like much other than a stalling tactic, he did remix songs that certainly reached their target audience: \u201cPerfect (Exceeder)\u201d by Mason and Princess Superstar, \u201cB2b\u201d by Charli XCX, and \u201cOnly Girl (In The World)\u201d by Rihanna, to name a few.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But at last, the long-anticipated moment came: to a mix of Enya\u2019s \u201cSail Away\u201d and several of their own songs, Coco and Clair Clair emerged clad in club-ready ensembles: Nave in a white fur coat and Toothill in a chunky metal belt, both with large black sunglasses. Opening with one of their most popular singles, \u201cPop Star,\u201d the pair strutted and sang the chorus: \u201cPop Star, but I\u2019m your boyfriend\u2019s favorite DJ, pay me just to party, and I\u2019ll show up in my PJs.\u201d This line seemed to capture Coco and Clair Clair\u2019s presence as a whole\u2014glamorous but casual, confident yet nonchalant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I was surprised to hear how much their speaking voices matched their recordings\u2014they both spoke with the same soft, airy quality that makes the delivery of the relaxed bluntness in their lyrics so compelling. During my personal favorite track, \u201cCrushcrushcrush,\u201d the two leaned into their self-aware and silly sides while singing about a crush who is conventionally unattractive: \u201cKinda look like a duck, but a b\u2014 might start quacking,\u201d \u201c…kind of ugly but love is blind.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Their comfort and ease were reminiscent of those of two close friends doing an intimate karaoke performance. The two took several song requests from the audience\u20142020 throwback \u201cWishy Washy\u201d and 2024 single \u201cAggy,\u201d and even sang along to the Cranberries\u2019 \u201cLinger,\u201d the latter being what prompted Toothill to acknowledge the \u201csad day\u201d it had been.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But Coco and Clair Clair didn\u2019t let the mood stay low for long. Soon after \u201cLinger,\u201d they performed their recent release \u201cB\u2014s,\u201d instructing the audience to channel the frustration and sadness through the catharsis of feminine rage: \u201cScream like a b\u2014!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n From their August 2024 album, \u201cGirl,\u201d the duo also performed the snappy \u201cKate Spade\u201d (which, though it has no apparent connection to the late designer, references bell hooks\u2019 \u201cAll About Love\u201d) and the clever diss \u201cMartini,\u201d which came with its own call-and-response from Nave: \u201cWhen I say \u2018mar,\u2019 you say \u2018tini!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Though Coco and Clair Clair may not have had time on their side on Wednesday night, their sweet-and-snarky style provided a space for escapism and catharsis alike, making femininity feel fun and empowering on a night when those qualities felt distant. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo Credit: Nicole Steriovski Review by Maya Santow Having spent most of the day on November 6, entrenched in uncertainty, sadness, and dread about the political climate, I made my way to Paradise Rock Club, laughing at the irony I felt about going to a Coco and Clair Clair concert that night. Their lighthearted, quippy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24057,"featured_media":44615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[33,1128,2184,26,327,117,31,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24057"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44614"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44687,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44614\/revisions\/44687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}