The Casio Brothers
Swedish Superheroes Of Kid-Hop
Piano Bar, Festival Centre
Sun 11 March
Until Sun 1 April


The Casio Brothers are three earnest Scandinavians clad in white ski-wear, mullet wigs and toweling headbands. Fabio, DJ Mario and their lilac-haired sister Coco have developed a form of entertainment called kid-hop, a frenetic mixture of rapping, singing, dancing, DJ scratching and aerobics, all accompanied by Casio keyboards.

From the opening song Everything Is Groovy Woovy to their promises that dancing will "put fire in your feet", accompanied by pointing to their feet, this is cheesy entertainment. Many of the parents in the audience simply sat back, clapping along. The children who overcame their self-consciousness and skipped down to the front of the stage twirled, stamped and clapped constantly, singing along when Fabio and Coco pranced through them with microphones.

Some of the lyrics were hard to make out, and the running order didn't immediately involve the whole audience - a hilarious mass beatboxing session could have come sooner. However, the band's messages are overwhelmingly positive, from eating healthily to turning off the television to play outside: "Her bike has rusted in the shed and dust has settled on her head!"

The dead space of the Festival Centre piano bar was not ideal for this kind of interactive performance - a larger dancefloor and less bright morning sunlight might have encouraged more families to get up and dance without feeling embarrassed. The Casios, however, have found their niche: seeing them freely handing out stickers and cheerfully signing autographs after the show, it's clear that kid-hop will go far.

Rosie Clarke