Ariel Smith Photos
Car Seat Headrest.
Car Seat Headrest and Naked Giants came to College Street Music Hall on Saturday night for the first leg of their summer tour.
Naked Giants opened the show with one, or two, or possibly three rock songs that all slurred together with rollicking guitar and popping, spastic lights (they performed entirely backlit, foiling this photographer’s attempts at a picture). Naked Giant is from the West Coast, and band members revealed mid-set that they’d just driven all the way to New Haven from Seattle. They thanked the crowd profusely for attending, and though there were quite a few Car Seat Headrest shirts to be seen in the front row, everyone yelled back enthusiastically.
The four members of Car Seat Headrest traipsed onstage around a quarter after nine, along with a few members of Naked Giants. Vocalist Will Toledo opened with songs from Twin Fantasy (Sober to Death) and Teens of Style (Maud Gone).
During a brief interlude, Toledo thanked everyone for coming out. He began listing several of his past albums, and then — out of nowhere — slipped in: “oh yeah, we have a new album coming out in July.”
The crowd went wild.
“So there’s that thing,” he said.
During many of the songs, Toledo entertained us by dancing — looking a bit like a wind-up toy set loose, often crouching down and folding his limbs in on themselves, at once awkward and shy of the spotlight but simultaneously inviting it along for his many disjointed spirals around the stage.
The audience ranged from groups of teenagers smashed up front against the photo pit, arms hanging over the edge, to middle-aged concertgoers sprinkled throughout the front to the crowded balcony. Everyone sang along together, particularly welcoming to a rendition of “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales.”
During the encore, which lasted about 20 minutes and included “Beach Life-In-Death,” the band invited a couple members of the audience up on stage to dance. Since there were already so many people onstage playing instruments, it took a minute for people in the back to realize that there were two new additions, whirling around just slightly off beat, at which point they pointed, laughed, and continued clapping along.
