Usually, openers for your favourite musicians are ironically, terrible and awful. That wasn’t the case when Koo Koo Kanga Roo was the first ones up to open for Frank Turner. The duo was silly and adorable, and were gigantic balls of energy as soon as they stepped on. They started with a song about the alphabet, and from then I was hooked.
They sang about cats, taught us to be ninjas, and asked us our favorite colors. They convinced us that unicorns were real, and came to join us to dance in the crowd. They got us all to do the hokey pokey and step out of our comfort zones; I’d never seen another group do that before. I’ve seen intense crowd interaction, but this was the most I’ve ever experienced or even heard of, for that matter.
Basically, a Koo Koo Kanga Roo show is like what you wish kindergarten was like everyday. It was carefree and goofy, and no one was ‘too cool’ to participate, because everyone was doing it. Their interactive dance party was incredibly fun, and the positivity really boosted everyone’s mood.
After the show, I got to talk to them and hang out. They didn’t always really sing children’s songs, but it’s what they’ve ended up doing happily. The duo is from Minneapolis and have fans from 2 to 52. Both moms and dads and children and teenagers have gravitated to their sense of whimsicality, making them stand out. They’re extremely personable, and unafraid. The two can laugh off the annoyed members of the crowd and embrace their ‘joke band’ shtick. It’s a brilliant doofy stupidly fun gimmick, and it’s something that this world definitely needs.