The two biggest haters begin their tour in Montreal with only love in their hearts.

Coco and Clair Clair, the bratty alt-pop/rap duo from Atlanta began their Girl tour in Montreal at intimate Le Studio TD. Despite it being a Tuesday night, they were warmly welcomed by a crowded audience of Y2K fashionistas, parasocial relationship-ed young people, and Pitchfork-vibed adult dudes. 

Coco and Clair Clair met on Twitter in 2013, they quickly became friends after discovering they both lived in Atlanta suburbs and like to party. They started self-releasing music on Soundcloud in 2015 and organically gained popularity throughout their careers due to their catchy lyrics, scathing insults, and laissez-faire approach to marketing and promotion. Their talented cross between dreamy bedroom pop sound and hard-hitting bad-bitch rap lyrics attract attention from music critics and zillenial listeners alike. In 2017 TeenVogue unconsensually used a song from their first EP P.O.S.H. in an ad campaign; in 2020 their music started getting popular on TikTok without any content made by the artists themselves, despite encouragement from their team. A lyric from my favourite song off their new album Girl  ‘Martini’ reflects on the successfulness of their strategy of just being cool and detached on the internet: “If our songs are so shit then why the free clout? No press needed for like five years”. 

Girl was released at the end of August, written between long nights of partying in Amsterdam and peaceful relaxation in Joshua Tree; it's a mature and grown-up version of their previous releases. The lyrics are deeper, bringing up insecurities around love and perception, and they surprised each other throughout writing and production by exploring new song structures. The songs are less repetitive, trusting the weight of the lyrics and unique beats to keep the listener captivated rather than repeated choruses to get stuck in one’s head. It pairs incredibly well with Charli XCX’s brat album. 

This concert was apparent it was their tour opening night, not due to nervousness, as their stage presence is akin to them hanging out in their bedrooms, but with dealing with complications of details you only learn about once you’re on stage, like uncomfortable new boots and unfamiliar monitor systems. Nevertheless, they performed with ease and comfort, chatting and giggling between songs, commenting on Montreal-viral tweets related to their show, and the scam of the botanical garden’s yearly ‘Gardens of Light’ exhibit. Before each song Clair Clair would introduce it with something along the lines of: “Oh this song is really good”, “oh you’re going to love this next one”, “oh this one is great”, and “This next song is… yeah.” it was very amusing. Clair Clair’s ethereal bedroom vocals were stretched with reverb and Coco’s cuntiest lyrics were screamed with extra curse words, encouraging the audience to quickly change from swaying back and forth to jumping to the beat and yelling out the lyrics. They interacted with the audience quite a bit, asking for requests twice, and lengthening the encore from two to three songs. At the end of their set, they immediately signed set lists and photos for the most dedicated fans. Despite the cunty detached mean girl attitude of their musical personas, they are both down-to-earth nice best friends who are here to have a good time with everyone.