On Wednesday night, a whole gang of KANM members and I loaded up in one van and drove to Houston to catch Car Seat Headrest play live at White Oak Music Hall. Unfortunately, due to our busy schedules, we weren’t able to catch the opener, but we made it there early enough to get good spots in the crowd before Car Seat Headrest came on. They opened with a new song titled, Can’t Cool Me Down which was really great and has me looking forward to their next record.

Then they started to play two of the biggest singles off Twin Fantasy, Cute Thing and Bodys, both of which were fantastic. What popped out to me the most as the band explored these songs live is the contrast in emotion. There are moments in Car Seat Headrest songs that are sweet and introspective, and in those moments the crowd was quiet, but when the band moved into the harder, angry or anxious parts of the songs the energy filled the room. The crowd started jumping and yelling along with these sections of the songs. I was definitely one of them and honestly, it was very cathartic.

The rest of the set consisted of another new song, a couple of pre-Matador Car Seat Headrest songs and a bunch of cuts off of Twin Fantasy and Teens of Denial. A standout moment to me was the version of Sober to Death they played. They mixed the song with Powderfinger by Neil Young and it actually felt very at home as a Car Seat Headrest song. They closed the concert with Destroyed by Hippie Powers which goes even harder live, but this wasn’t enough for the crowd.

The crowd kept calling for the band to play an encore. It was pretty obvious that they would, after all, they hadn’t played Beach Life-In-Death yet. Beach Life-In-Death is a thirteen-minute epic that is easily one of the most defining songs on Twin Fantasy. When the band came back, that’s exactly what they did, and it more than delivered. The contrast of energies shined through stronger on this final song than at any part in the concert, making it honestly one of my favorite concert memories ever. It was incredible to see what used to be a little Bandcamp gem brought to life on a big stage with a whole band and an entire crowd of energy. If you haven’t listened to Car Seat Headrest before I recommend listening to Twin Fantasy (both versions) and Teens of Denial. Those records have incredible hooks, emotional songwriting and are incredibly relatable.