Seattle indie rock stars return after long COVID recovery
The Seattle indie rock stars play their first show in two years during ZooTunes' 40th anniversary season. Seattle indie rock band Car Seat Headrest is returning to the stage after a lengthy hiatus due to frontman Will Toledo's illness. The band had previously cancelled a week's worth of shows before Toledo caught COVID-19 on tour. Despite initially being treated as a stomach flu, Toledo was able to finish the spring tour. His illness was diagnosed as a histamine issue linked to long COVID. Toledo still has bad days but is in better health, having regained a great deal of mobility and managing his symptoms with the right diet. Despite this, the band's June 20 performance at Woodland Park Zoo is part of the 40th anniversary season of ZooTunes.
Publicados : 3 semanas atrás por Michael Rietmulder no Entertainment
It didn’t show, but the man behind the mask was reeling. Performing in a gas mask with LED eyes, a costumed Will Toledo and Car Seat Headrest were slashing and whirling through what was supposed to be a bounce-back concert in their hometown.
The Seattle indie rock stars had scrapped a week’s worth of shows preceding the 2022 Paramount Theatre date after Toledo caught COVID-19 on tour. Playing to an eager post-lockdown crowd in their backyard, Car Seat Headrest looked set to resume their already pandemic-delayed tour supporting their daring 2020 album “Making a Door Less Open.” Underneath the cartoonishly spooky attire of his alter ego Trait, a fun curveball for the tour, Toledo was in serious pain.
“I felt like my stomach belonged to a different human being during that show,” Toledo said. “That was the sickest I’ve ever been and done a show.”
Too sick, it turned out. The next morning, the band nixed another week of shows. Doctors initially treated the frontman’s illness as a stomach flu unrelated to COVID and Toledo was eventually able to finish the spring run.
“I remember that tour being an intense tour of up and downs,” he said. “The good shows were really good and then there were also a lot of days when we were all really bummed out or I was sick. It was just hard.”
With the presumed stomach bug seemingly behind him, the band was slated to hit the road again in the fall. But those plans were ultimately derailed when Toledo experienced a flare-up of severe symptoms he’d learn was actually a histamine issue linked to long COVID.
“This time it was different symptoms. I’d eat some food and then I’d start getting a buzzing in my hands, my face, my feet,” Toledo said. “I’d have all this anxiety reactions that seemed disconnected from any emotion. It was more of a chemical thing happening in my body. I’d get dizzy, I’d get nauseous. Sometimes I’d get vertigo. It was really bad. I couldn’t really leave my house for a few months there.”
Toledo still has “bad days.” But the 31-year-old singer/guitarist and CSH’s principal songwriter is in better health, having “regained a great deal of mobility” and learning to manage his symptoms with the right diet.
For the first time in two years, Car Seat Headrest are slated to perform June 20 at Woodland Park Zoo. The hometown rockers’ sold-out return is part of the 40th anniversary season of ZooTunes, the zoo’s beloved outdoor concert series, which enters middle age with a younger, indie-leaning lineup.
While the live music industry has put lockdown restrictions in its rearview, CSH’s unplanned hiatus is a reminder of COVID’s repercussions and persistent challenges, beyond increased insurance costs for touring bands.
“I do want to emphasize that COVID is still around,” Toledo said, calling from Los Angeles where he joined lo-fi folk-blues artist Jandek for a live improvisational performance this month. “It’s still something that can do damage. So, if you go to our show or any public event, you should keep masking. I always wear an N95 when I go out in public. I’ve got one on right now, I’ll probably have one on at the show. And I strongly encourage everyone to continue taking their health seriously and take precautions when they’re in public.”
Toledo’s health is “pretty stable” now. But the ZooTunes appearance is more of a baby step than a full-on “return to normal” for a band that spent much of last year working on a new record slated for 2025. The one-off local date at an outdoor venue felt like a good opportunity to get back in front of fans without the travel and the logistical headaches of touring, complicated by Toledo’s somewhat “unpredictable health issues.”
“I think it’s really just a matter of being very pragmatic in the amount of stuff that we sign up for. We’re probably not going to do any big, grand tours anytime soon,” Toledo said, noting smaller, multicity runs with strategic off days could be in play.
As of now, the zoo date is the only show on the calendar for CSH, which plans to finish up the new album this fall. However, next month Toledo plans to join members of Seattle band Floral Tattoo at The Vera Project (July 26) to play some covers and CSH deep cuts from his extensive back catalog that he doesn’t normally play. (If it’s not sold out yet, it will be once word gets around.)
In some ways, the intimate set at Seattle Center’s beloved all-ages bastion will be a throwback to when Toledo, whose band now fills large theaters, relocated here 10 years ago. With a trove of lo-fi recordings under his belt, the prolific musician from Virginia had gained some Bandcamp momentum before moving in with a Kirkland friend after graduating from college in 2014. Car Seat Headrest was a solo project at the time and Toledo spent that first year “scrambling around seeing if I could find any DIY shows,” which wasn’t easy with his limited connections.
Within a year or so, the new guy in town was fleshing CSH out into a full band and landed a deal with esteemed indie label Matador Records. Come 2016, their acclaimed “Teens of Denial” album made them the talk of the indie rock world.
“I really liked the really small shows that we were doing at first,” Toledo said. “The only place that we could get a show was Ground Zero, really, in Bellevue. I don’t think they do shows anymore, but at the time, that became a really great place where they were very welcoming. … You weren’t expecting to make a lot of money or play to a lot of people, but that kind of takes the pressure off. Then if you get in the habit of going there, you see interesting bands that you wouldn’t have otherwise and young bands who don’t have another opportunity to play. That’s the kind of vibe that I really like. …
Tópicos: Coronavirus, Music