Car Seat Headrest storms Orlando with rock & roll meteors Naked Giants

THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Car Seat Headrest and Naked Giants, The Beacham, Feb. 22

Matador Records mainstay Car Seat Headrest has been as much a blossoming as a breakout. What began as a modest solo project of Virginia's Will Toledo has over the course of this decade become a total juggernaut. In concert, they're now a major affair with mega personnel, production and following.

On stage, they're a seven-man force that also includes all members of opening band Naked Giants. It's two drummers and guitars galore, bringing a sonic storm that now sits among live giants like And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. There's no more fitting way to truly render music of such symphonic rush and breathtaking scale. With this army, these songs rocket straight up through the stratosphere and explode with breathless dazzle like New Year's Eve.

Their performance is a headlong tower of melody, joy and climax. In keeping up with the music, the light show could've thrown the whole hall into seizure. Almost no one in indie rock right now shoots the horizon with as much horsepower and ragged exuberance as Car Seat Headrest. Stunning in gale and immensity, this once lo-fi DIY project could now translate in a stadium.

Making their Orlando debut were Naked Giants, a rising young Seattle power trio who weren't fucking around. They pack big-time power and don't do foreplay.



Their gutsy but dramatic opening saw each player walk on one-by-one and drop right into full attack mode. First drums, then guitar, and finally bass. As soon as the third man was on, the unit clicked into top gear and was bull-kicking with maximum swagger. From there on, it was practically pedal flat till the glorious finish line.


A wrecking ball of garage, punk and unchained rock & roll, Naked Giants are sort of black sheep among the tasteful twang of the New West Records roster. But in these kids, they’ve got a white-hot meteor.

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