Frankie Cosmos – Button Factory – Live Review – 23/08/18

Support on the night came from Dublin ‘garage pop’ band Squarehead. They are a three piece with guitar, bass and drums who despite their tender years seemed quite accomplished on stage and held the audience’s attention throughout, which is rare enough for a support band. One to watch our for.

Frankie Cosmos is the stage name for Greta Kline, who is an American artist that has released three studio albums to date. Greta is the daughter of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates (of Gremlins fame) so comes from Hollywood royalty! The band were a four piece on the night, with guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. Keyboardist Lauren Martin shared the lime light with Greta, singing backing vocals. They appeared on stage at half nine for a set comprising a large number of short, sharp indie pop songs! The arrangements were altered from the studio releases to give the tracks a more upbeat feel.

Shortly into the set, the band were joined on stage by smaller versions of themselves! For the song ‘Being Alive’ four puppet versions of the band arrived on stage, along with four puppeteers. A nice quirk which diverted your attention from one of their more lively numbers.

“Being alive
Matters quite a bit
Even when you
Feel like shit” – Being Alive

This was the third date of their Irish tour, with the band visiting Belfast and Galway on the previous two evenings. Greta talked briefly of their short tour and said they had enjoyed their trip!

The set mainly featured songs from their last two albums; Next Thing (2016) and Vessel (2018), with the crowd loving every moment of their introspective yearnings. Highlights on the night included Sinister, Bus Bus Train Train, and opener If I Had a Dog.  They ended the set with Fool, which was one of the stronger tracks on the night.

A two song encore ended the evening. The first song being the sad and soulful ‘Outside with the Cuties’ which is the track that brought them to most people’s attention. Their final song of the night featured a touch of Abba, with Mama Mia woven in amongst a medley. A crowd pleaser if there ever was one!

“I haven’t written this part yet
Will you help me write it?” – Outside with the Cuties