Concert Review: The Cuckoos Go Back In Time To Psych-Up Pianos NYC

For many, the “hey-day” of music has passed, which is why they revert to retro styles to live where they believe music lived. Whatever era it may be, they clutch to that time in style and performance. For the Cuckoos, 70’s psychedelic rock is their mental and sonic home, of which they turned a room in Pianos NYC into a ballroom, time machine.

There are always artists that are bigger than their space, and The Cuckoos fit that bill. It is clear that front-man Kenneth Frost has ambition pouring out of his pores. He studied the David Bowie, Jimmy Page playbook of carrying your presence as if you might be too cool for the stage/the earth. With his hair over his eyes, a constant stomp in his feet, and a sway of his shoulders, he performs his songs as if he is leading a march into the cosmos. Psychedelia, naturally, has a “spacey” vibe. Hence, the chords of songs such as, “Mind Breakthrough” and “No Sunrise” felt like they were emanating the rise and fall of stars and galaxies. Their songs are paced to either burst in funkadelic sounds or creep in slow synth-waves. Frost has such a dark, deep voice that it might as well be as rich and rare as a black diamond. Having all these vast instrumentals surround the earthiness and vulnerability of his vocals only furthers The Cuckoos psychedelic vibes.Thus, it was befitting that The Cuckoos held a mutual welcoming but attractively arrogant tone.

Classic rockers always presented themselves as beings beyond this earth that only crash-landed to gives us the music of the cosmos. Hence, there is a cool, young arrogance to The Cuckoos’ aura that appeals to all, who have felt they are bigger and better than the world, which gave an urgent, rebellious hook to songs such as, “Get It On”. Again, this arrogance is not unwelcoming, it is just youthful and rock n’roll. Thus, to go back in time in order to forwarded into space Click Here to Checkout The Cuckoos.