Live Review: Car Seat Headrest

Three guys that don't much resemble Car Seat Headrest (CSH) run out on stage and introduce themselves as "Car Seat, aaaaah" - quick pause while the bassist checks the back of his instrument - "Headrest!"

They kick into TV, a song of "their new album". It's a great track, but it's definitely not on Twin Fantasy and we can see people standing on tiptoes to try and catch sight of missing frontman Will Toledo. Three or four songs in the bassist (who we now know to be Gianni Aiello) caves, admitting, "The jig's up - three of us are Naked Giants." The Seattle outfit are providing Toledo and co with some extra road muscle and slip a couple of their own tunes into the setlist throughout the night. We guarantee they've picked up some new fans in the process.

Before all that, though, the real Car Seat Headrest run on stage, Toledo still mostly obscured behind a Korg synth/keys stack stage right. With all seven members of both bands in place, TV hits its jerky, psychedelic stride. At the end, Aiello jokes that it's a cover of a song by band they like. "Unfortunately they all died. We sorta became their cover band."

Toledo steps out of the wings for the first time and the crowd cheers as he takes centre-stage for The Drum, the night's only Teens Of Style cut. The value of the extra players is immediate. Car Seat Headrest sound massive, CSH guitarist Ethan Ives and his Naked Giants guitarist counterpart Grant Mullen complementing each other beautifully. Having a second drummer means they don't lose any of the studio colour, either - Toledo's been known to flog a cowbell here and there and Henry LaVallee of Naked Giants doesn't get many quiet moments amid the bits and bobs of his percussion rig.

Toledo wields a maraca with both hands on Fill In The Blank, swinging it back and forth over his shoulder like he's flicking holy water at the front rows before Aiello takes point on a heavy keys solo. The singer then jog-dances into Bodys, tonight's first look at their new album.  From the outside it looked like a strange choice at first to follow-up his acclaimed 'regular' studio debut with a remake of cult bedroom record Twin Fantasy. Teens Of Style seemed to tie a neat bow on Toledo's Bandcamp origins and Teens Of Denial was a confident step into the band's next phase. Why go backwards? If the final recording made Toledo's point, the live renditions drive it home. He had a picture in his head and now that ability and opportunity have caught up with ambition Toledo wants people to see it the way he does.

After the slower Sober To Death and a cover of Neil Young's Powderfinger, the maracas and cowbell are back in full force for Destroyed By Hippie Powers. The distorted opening salvo shatters the room's chill, one punter climbing his mates' shoulders while the rest leap and howl, "WHOO! Hit of DMT!" Afterwards, Toledo steps back behind the keys and Naked Giants take the reins again for more raw blues/psyche heat on Pyramids, a track from their debut EP. It's a testament to the quality of their tunes that there's no energy drop after following such a clear crowd favourite.

The opening lines of Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales cause a ripple of howls in the crowd even before the beautiful, purling keys and echoey guitar come in - the discordant hundreds-strong chorus actually make a pretty suitable couch for Toledo's emotional crackle.

Toledo and Ives double-team Simon & Garfunkle's "lie la lie"s on The Boxer, Mullen adding a fuzzy country solo, before they wade into 14-minute, three-part epic, Beach Life-In-Death. Nervous Young Inhumans closes the set proper, distorted guitar dropping out to leave Toledo's revised monologue with clipped snares and a bass line stuck in a melancholy funk; “I didn’t invite fortune and fame in, though some people think it"/"Did I say too much? There’s nothing else I can say.”

Toledo returns alone for the encore, hunched over the Korg again and low-lit like a red lava lamp. While he plays White Ferrari, Frank Ocean's low synth hum replaced with inorganic church organs, the rest of the band(s) come out one by one to provide intermittent harmonies. Drummer Andrew Katz adds some rim clicks and the band pick up their instruments and shift smoothly into Twin Fantasy (Those Boys). One last cover rounds out the night, Nina Simone's Do What You Gotta Do. As the chorus repeats over and over, the band build through each, "Do what you gotta do," leaving Toledo to intone, "Come on back, see me when you can," into the gap.