Concert Review: Kid Koala, November 24, U Street Music Hall

There are people who headline vaudeville acts. There are people who hang out with puppeteers. There are people who can pull off bear suits. There are talented mash-up artists. Rarely are all these attributes found in one individual. Enter Kid Koala.

The Canadian-based artist (who went to school in the Washington, DC-suburbs!) put on a great show at U Street Music Hall on 11/24 despite the potential difficulties of a Thanksgiving weekend and an early set time (8:30! Not gonna lie, as a devoted in-bed-by-midnighter I was not displeased). Kid Koala’s tracks are amaaaaazing, combining ALL types of music and unexpected but artistic sounds ranging from old commercials to cartoon jingles. His set-up is also really neat. He has two monitors behind his booth that
allows the audience to see a close-up of his hands as he mixes/mashes/scratches (obviously I’m not an expert on the lingo here) his records.

The actual spectacle Kid Koala puts on is also something to write home about. Not only is he a charismatic guy, giving shout-outs to the crowd, his daughter, and his sponsors as well as explaining a bit about each track he plays and the reason why he sports and will sport a koala suit for 100 consecutive shows (he lost a bet), but he also makes sure his audience remains entertained. For this particular vaudeville-themed show, he had three dancers parading about with an impressive arrange of props, including but not limited to feathers, man-sized USA maps, paper planes (thrown to the audience), and a gramophone.

Other concert-time activities included a limbo competition and a kazoo-off. As if that wasn’t enough, Kid Koala also offered his fans the chance to enter a contest to win a personal pizza party, DJ’ed by Kid Koala himself, for 16 friends – and he specified there would be no Dominoes-ordering. Instead [and I quote as accurately as possible] “we’ll set you up with pizza that has truffle oil and such.” Obviously this man knows what’s up in terms of good entertainment, company, music, and food. He’s definitely a man worth seeing.

Posted on by halley in Concerts