Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – “Do you want to feel something good tonight?” Madeleine Mathews of Child Seat asked the crowd. Child Seat was celebrating the release of their sophomore album Dancing at The Disco at The Paramount. The album itself starts off with an “Intro” that has one thinking of Harold Faltermeyer’s beats from “Alex F.” The album has some exhilarating retro late-80s vibes with songs such as “Something Good” and “Money.”
Josiah Mazzaschi and Mathews are the duo behind Child Seat, a band that helped relaunch the post-pandemic music scene here in Los Angeles. The band started writing music in 2021 – though perhaps there is a dispute about whether or not the band started in 2021 or 2022. When it comes to their first single release, and very danceable, “Fever Dream,” Mazzaschi believed the date of the song was 2022 while Mathews put the date at 2021. Both are probably right in different ways. The song was written in 2021 while the song was released in 2022.
The band started when Mazzaschi came down with COVID. He spent his time recording Mathews’ solo project MAWD and the two exchanged music tracks. The tracks didn’t sound like the “folky” MAWD sound, but they continued to work on the music.
After about a month, they had a full album of songs (that were later released in the debut album Bad Holiday). They decided that they may as well start a band. The band name came about as Mathews explained, “it was always our joke band name, like that’s a stupid indie band name . . . . and so when the song wasn’t good, it was a Child Seat song, but I think we’ve turned things around . . . . I think our Child Seat songs are pretty good.”
The night was a family and friends affair. Mathews’ father and step-mother surprised the band by driving down from their home in Northern California to catch the set. The third song of the set “Loving Me” with some heavy down beats was dedicated to her step-mother.
For the introduction to the song “Anymore,” Mathews asked if anyone worked in the Los Angeles music industry and if anyone had to deal with “fake LA people.” “Does anyone ever feel like people only want to be friends with you, because they’re going to get something out of you?” Out in the audience, Alex Moore of Livingmore yelled out “That’s me!” Mathews asked in astonishment, “That’s you?!?!” and then went off on a tangent about how she loved the band Livingmore for both their friendship and music.
For the Blondie cover “Heart of Glass,” two people were asked to come up on stage to dance to the song. One of those who volunteered was an individual named Kelsey who has known Mathews since their college days and was declared to be the band’s number one fan (apologies given to the parents who had driven down to Los Angeles to catch the set). The parents held no ill will as they were seen taking selfies of themselves with the band in the background during the song.
Not all was fun and games. The title track “Dancing at The Disco” was about how Mathews has been dealing with health issues over the last decade, including a recent bad reaction to antibiotics. You could tell that the song, one of their more chill ones of the night, had an important emotional spot with the band as you could see Mathews’ eyes getting misty.
Opening the night was Night Talks and Broken Baby. Both are known for their entertaining onstage performances and music. Night Talks’ Soraya Sebghati spent the entire set dancing across the stage and giving the occasional high kick. She left the stage totally out of breath. Lead singer Amber Bollinger of Broken Baby is known for showing amazing flexibility. It would be wise not to challenge her to a game of Twister or the limbo dance. A jump into the crowd had the fans dancing with abandon.
Child Seat setlist: Know Me Now, Something Good, Loving Me, I Used To Turn You On, Anymore, Money, Fever Dream, Dancing at The Disco, Fever, Fool for Love, Heart of Glass (Blondie cover), Sad Voyage, Burning.
Broken Baby setlist: Madonna, Jack White, He Likes Me, Rock N Roll, Don’t Be Rude, Perfect, Meat Week, Television, Piss, Manager.
Night Talks setlist: Watching Waiting, Running On A Cloud, Applause, Dream I’m In, Double Vision, New Song (not titled yet), Nights, Roll On.
