CASKET GIRLS

Casket Girls

The Casket Girls are taking their brand of eerie pop on the road for nine days in Florida surrounding their larger tour with Slowdive. Whether you catch them in Miami Beach at Kill Your Idol on May 14 or in Lake Worth at Propaganda on May 15, you’ll be in for a performance straight out of your favorite nightmare — or dream.

The Savannah, Georgia trio, consisting of sisters Phaedra and Elsa Greene and front runner Ryan Graveface, keep a fantastical aesthetic in mind when they record, bringing vampire and prophets into their dark, apocalyptic world. The band’s name is a clever play on a “casquette girl,” a woman brought from France to Louisiana in the 1700s to be married. That sounds pretty scary, which might be why these Casket Girls have a certain defiance in their songs. Their music is also a fitting tribute to their hometown, which is known for its many ghost tours and haunted houses.

With a mix of lo-fi and goth rock, their voices rise in an angelic fashion above buzzing synths and spooky noises. Their last full-length release, 2016’s “The Night Machines,” features songs about social consciousness over nightmarish dream pop, their snarkiness just barely audible. On the album’s opener, “24 Hours,” the girls sing in unison, “Surrealistic, living in a dream and you miss it / Will it be redeemed if you wish it? / Will it come true?”

When given the opportunity to tour in Florida, band front runner Graveface jumped at the chance. Spreading more weirdness down here would be a beautiful thing. With Graveface wearing a mask fitting for a lucha libre and the sisters Greene wearing wigs and sunglasses, dancing in place like a Motown girl group, this won’t be your average small-venue show. Although their macabre, dream pop style of music might give people a certain dark impression, the band is actually known to pack quite a bit a love in their performances, including giving each audience member a warm hug at the end. That’s a level of intimacy rarely achieved by musicians.

Even in a state with as much sun as ours, The Casket Girls will shine bright like black, cold diamonds once they arrive. Keep your souls dark and your hearts big.

The Casket Girls will perform at 9pm Sunday, May 14 at Kill Your Idol, Miami Beach w. Smut and Monday, May 15 at Propaganda, Lake Worth with special guests The Water Colors and Dead and Loving It.
~ Olivia Feldman