Should We Run
Coo Coo Birds
Sugar Candy Mountain
This event is 21 and over
$12.00 – General Admission (Advance)
$15.00 –General Admission (Door)
*plus applicable service fees
Tickets available at The Independent box office (628 Divisadero, SF) with no service charge.
Born in the haze of a house party near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the origin of Coo Coo Birds begins deceptively calm when guitarist Jonny “Cat” Shaheri and drummer Ryan Zweng jammed out and parted ways. Fast forward a few months to Zweng living in Paris, where he found himself deep within a premonition of Cat playing piano. With wide-eyed urgency, Zweng immediately contacted the Sunshine Castle where the two had met, and the serendipitous destiny of Coo Coo Birds began to unfurl.
Now on the brink of their fifth studio album, the band has expanded to include two additional members, Gray Tolhurst and Joshua Cook. The four Coo Coo Birds wrote and recorded their latest LP at The Convent, a velvet-draped, sage-drenched artists’ collective and communal living space in San Francisco where the band resides. It embraces an inward-looking sensitivity, while of course maintaining the band’s timeless love for wine, women, and rock n’ roll. Recorded in the French countryside, the new album is a departure from the spastic, ‘80s glam savage vibes on their previous releases.
With one ear pressed to bands like the Kinks, The Doors, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Cure (of which drummer Lol Tolhurst’s son is the Coo Coo’s own bassist Gray) their distinct vibe is more than a classic rock haunt. Coo Coo Birds’ sound is pierced with Farsi-tongued vocals, drum beats recorded on John Bonham’s old touring kit, and a live performance so electrically intoxicating that mothers and boyfriends of young women have been known to gasp in fear…
Yet amidst this rock n’ roll lifestyle, the Coo Coo Birds have licensed music for commercials by companies like GoPro, Quicksilver, and Harpers Bazaar, and have been featured in The New York Times. Meanwhile the band keeps busy performing shows across the U.S. by way of their bright red psychedelic school bus, equipped with a full sound system, glittering interior and a stripper pole. When they’re not romping around with a busload of bohemian fans in tow, you might find the Coo Coo Birds performing at venues in from LA to Paris, and guerrilla music festivals from Berlin to Eastern Europe.