By Jodi Root

Last night I was torn between catching two of my favorite artists from 2008—both CSS and Love is All were playing; CSS at the Metro, Love is All at the Empty Bottle. Obviously, by the title of this post you can figure which gig I ended up at—but I’m definitely interested in hearing if any of you caught the show at the Bottle. Both groups promote upbeat, dancey, delectable pop music—one from Brazil and one of Swedish sorts—but it was the opener at CSS which was my deciding factor—SSION.

Many of you may not be super familiar with this eclectic, androgynous pop nightmare, but these Kansas City Natives sure now how to throw one helluva party. I caught them way back in 2002 when they played a free show with Numbers in Madison. Their obnoxious costume changes, (chicken/cow suits), stage props (bloody baby dolls), and live theatrics scared the shit out of me. So I was pretty excited to see what these cats were up to six years later, and I knew from Lolla this August that CSS definitely brings the dance party hard, so despite the all ages scene, I was stoked.

SSION hit Metro’s stage at 7:30 PM on the dot. The line-up seemed to have changed since I last caught them and sad to say, the cow/chicken costumes were not accounted for—but lead man Cody Critcheloe was definitely glammed to the nines with his creepy handlebar ‘stache, black eyeliner and leather get up. Critcheloe rocked the crowd with his two-man crew, busting out beats from their last few albums including the stellar cover of “Credit in the Straight World,” Fool’s Gold’s “Street Jizz,” and my personal favorite dance jam “Clowns.”

I didn’t recognize any tracks from Opportunity Bless My Soul, but from what I can tell I think the direction of the group has vastly disbanded their previous sounds—which is too bad, but the crowd didn’t seem to notice. Critcheole had the party pumping away hard, with his frequent outburst screaming fits of “CHICAGOOOOOOOO, MAKE SOME NOIIIIIISE!!!!” and eventually closed the 40-minute set with a plea to pick up some of the group’s merch so the posse could keep doing drugs. And that about sums of SSION in a nutshell—oh yeah, and I totally got my face groped while attempting to snap some pics in the pit to which I discovered that Cody definitely needs to invest in some waterproof mascara. (Unfortunately, these super would be sexy photos didn’t turn out, however, due to the lame fog machines.)

Around 8:40 or so Miss Lovefoxxx and her homegirlz (and homeboy singular) brought the packed crowd of teenage hipsters exactly what they needed—loud keys, raging guitars, childlike cooing, high-pitched screaming and plenty of jumping around. If you could see through the sickeningly over usage of Metro’s fog machines, you would have noticed Lovefoxxx’s sexy signature bodysuit, this one of a black and white spectacle, complete with a Native American headdress and chunky, blue eye makeup.

CSS rocked the show with no slowing down—opening things up with Donkey’s intro track, “Jager Yoga,” and “closing” the show with party favorite, “Reggae All Night.” The set focused mostly on material from Donkey, including “Left Behind,” “Rage (Rat is Dead)”, and the irresistible body-shaking “Move.” Material from their self-titled debut was also accounted for, including “Meeting Paris Hilton,” “This Month, Day 10,” “Off the Hook,” iPod commercial fave “Music is My Hot Hot Sex,” and “Alcohol.”

I don’t think I’ve had as much fun overall at a show in forever—the crowd was so diverse and full of shameless booty shakers—even the bro rocking the Iron Maiden shirt and long pony tail to my left seemed to be digging what Lovefoxxx was dishing out—twelve year old girls behind me were hopping and skipping about and no one seemed to be having as much fun as the 45-year old large man in flannel, who screamed to my friend and I, “F*** yeah! I’m not ever gonna stop!” (Weird. But also, hilarious.) Balloons floated amongst the crowd as Miss Foxxx rambled something about a fashion internship at Elle Magazine as the crowd fixated on popping as many balloons as possible. The dancing never once ceased even after “Reggae All Night” closed the set.

The first encore number was “Air Painter,” but I must admit that in my golden years, I skipped out early to grab my coat from coat check to avoid being trampled by the teeny boppers.

Did anyone happen to catch the additional encore numbers? What were your thoughts on SSION? Anyone make it to the Bottle to check Love is All?

Related: 5 Questions with CSS

Myspace: CSS
Myspace: SSION
MP3: CSS – “Rat is Dead (Rage)”