Child Seat (the duo of Madeleine Mathews and Josiah Mazzaschi) kicked off the night at The Goldfish in a celebration of girlish figure's music video release for "Please Her For Pleasure." You can read that review here. I've followed the band since 2022, but I've known about both Mathews and Mazzaschi for much longer. I came across Mathews via MAWD in 2019 and I've followed Mazzaschi since 2011 (oh yeah, I've been hanging out in the Los Angeles music scene for way too long) via Light FM and then in 2018 via Bizou. Interesting fun fact about Bizou, bassist Nicole Fiorentino is known for playing with Garbage and The Smashing Pumpkins. Circling back to Child Seat, I've always loved the band and in 2024 I covered their record release show for their sophomore album Dancing at The Disco, which you can read here.
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| Child Seat at The Goldfish |
For their set at The Goldfish, they had a girlish figure's Analise Nelson (who was mistakenly called Allison Loewe, the band's regular bassist a couple times) fill-in on bass for the night. So someone was doing double duty. This was my first time crossing paths with the band since that 2024 record release party and it was obvious that the band has been busy writing new material. In 2025, they've released six songs (one being the Foreigner cover "Urgent") and all were on the setlist. They also included two songs each from their debut album Bad Holiday and the aforementioned Dancing at The Disco. A third studio album must be just around the corner based on their creative explosion this year.
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| Child Seat at The Goldfish |
How does the band describe their sound? Their Spotify bio says the following, "Mathews’ powerful rock vocals, reminiscent of artists like Brittany Howard/Karen O./Annie Lennox, creates a unique juxtaposition over Mazzaschi's 80's synth-heavy instrumentals with a hint of the indie rock/pop bands of the early 2000’s/2010’s." I think when it comes to their 2025 releases, the Annie Lennox vocal description fits like a glove for songs like their "Urgent" cover and "Heart To Heart."
Comment of the set: Let's dance and have a good time.
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| Child Seat at The Goldfish |
Their song "Hyperphantasia" has an interesting backstory. "Aphantasia, you close your eyes and you can't see any apple. Hyperphantasia is the opposite where you have too much imagination and think too much." The song is about over imagination and, as was said, sex. The dance floor "Love Drug" is about texting your tinder date (if that is still a thing) or your booty call. Both are also 2025 releases.
Mathews put on a fun show while striding with purpose, dropping to her knees for that added vocal punch, and a kaleidoscope of facial expressions that went from pouty to aggressive to blasé. Mazzaschi kept the music engaging with high pitch riffs on the guitar.
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| Child Seat at The Goldfish |
Their latest song release is "Stress." For me, 2025 was a juggling of work (I'm technically not supposed to write anything specific about what is going on at work due to certain industry changes that are impacting the company, but let's just say there is some over-all stress there) and music photography as well as my 2025 goal of re-starting this blog site. In many ways, 2025 was a self-imposed stress, but the lyrics do speak to me:
I’m tired of feeling like I’m in over my head
Stress
If this is everything I wanted
Well, I never got what I needed
Can I reduce my stress levels in 2026? It would be rather easy, but doing all this juggling is also sort of fun.
Setlist: Fever, Heart To Heart, Loving Me, Stress, Love Drug, Hyperphantasia, Green Light, Sad Voyage, Urgent (Foreigner cover), Burning.
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