Live Review: Car Seat Headrest, Morning Harvey

Brisbane rockers Morning Harvey have been relatively quiet of late, but they atone tonight by making plenty of noise as they open proceedings for the growing and highly charged crowd.

They've swelled out to a five-piece at some juncture but it's lithe frontman Spencer White who commands attention with his faux-disaffected presence, the singer holding court with his sultry vocals as his band churn out lush, dreamy landscapes atop almost rave-like grooves. The sound is massive and pristine and they get the benefit of the full Triffid light show, further extrapolating the music's impact, and they receive a fittingly positive response from the crowd for strong tunes like Smith Street Swap Meet and sombre sweep of set closer Susanne Monday.

It's only been a year since US indie rock wunderkinds Car Seat Headrest were in the country on their inaugural Australian sojourn, and anyone who witnessed their excellent sets on that occasion would be pretty sure that they know what to expect from this most prompt of returns. Obviously the setlist will be different because in the interim the band released the excellent Twin Fantasy - a reinterpretation of the lo-fi DIY album of the same name band leader Will Toledo released on Bandcamp back in 2011 - but the basic structure of the performance should be familiar, after all how much can change in a band's ranks in a mere 12 months?

A hell of a lot as it transpires. As a group of musicians take the stage and start pounding into the opening indie rock salvo Toledo is nowhere to be seen, and we eventually ascertain that the first song is actually being presented by Seattle band Naked Giants (running through one of their own songs, TV). Soon enough that band are joined by the members of Car Seat Headrest and it becomes apparent that the two bands have in fact morphed into one seven-piece behemoth, presumably to do justice in the live realm to the painstaking work put into the new version of Twin Fantasy. The cinematic new reimagining features dense layers of guitars and plenty happening in the margins, so it kinda makes sense that it would take two bands to bring it to life on stage.

We're taken on a detour first, older track The Drum getting an airing before the excellent Fill In The Blanks from 2016 breakthrough Teens Of Denial gets the excited crowd singing with gusto. With so many gunslingers at his disposal, the casually-clad and visibly relaxed Toledo takes on a straight frontman role tonight, occasionally arming himself with maracas as he adds his world-weary vocals to the exultant cacophony, the extended band tight and in sync and seeming as if they're having the time of their collective lives. There's two drummers pounding away at the back which adds massive grunt to new tunes Bodys and Sober To Death, the latter skilfully segueing into a joyous sounding rendition of Neil Young's Powderfinger (are they aware of the Brisbane connection or is this pure serendipity? It's hard to say) featuring banks of harmonies and counter-harmonies that trill with their dexterity. Next another cover is thrown into the mix, this time a rock-y extrapolation of Simon & Garfunkel's The Boxer: by this stage it's clear that this band pay no heed to convention and just do what feels right. Toledo is still the star of the attraction but he seems stoked to be surrounded by this hive of activity - happy to remain the nucleus in the eye of the storm - and the crowd is with him all the way, ecstatically mesmerised by the intoxicating maelstrom developing before them even as they continue with another Naked Giants track, Pyramids, the simulated handclaps at the track's beginning soon enough replaced by the real thing.

But as things return to more familiar territory with the opening notes of the epic Drunk Drivers/Killer Waves the crowd goes almost literally ballistic, quickly hitting full singalong mode as everyone howls along exuberantly with the infectious refrain. The party continues at full pace with a trio of new Twin Fantasy tracks showing their unabashed strength - the epic Beach Life-In-Death, catchy Cute Thing and the lysergic Nervous Young Inhumans - before the set proper screeches to an end with a glorious run through of Destroyed By Hippy Powers, Toledo bringing it all home with an extended and sincere spoken word diatribe as musical madness unravels all around him.

By this stage the crowd is uniformly ecstatic - seeming almost taken aback by the undiluted power and unbridled musical acumen that they've just witnessed - but they quickly find voice and demand a return, Toledo acquiescing and returning on his own to start a cover of Frank Ocean's White Ferrari with just keyboards and voice. One by one the rest of the crew join him and take up their instruments, the sound building and building as the song morphs into the triumphant Twin Fantasy (Those Boys) and back again, the entire night dissolving into a celebration of music's communal power. The future of rock'n'roll is among us and he's wearing daggy tracksuit pants. There's hope for us all yet.