Meet the Night Carrots, North Park's favorite band
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The Night Carrots, featuring from left to right Eva Lagstein (bass), Waverly Lye (vocals), Clementine Anderson (drums) and Lola Anderson (guitar). Photo: Kelly Lye
The Night Carrots got started during the pandemic, quickly built a loyal following by relentlessly gigging across North Park and swiftly graduated to bigger stages. And soon, their youngest member will graduate from elementary school.
Why it matters: The four-member girl band is locally famous and they're indoctrinating the neighborhood's next generation of rock fans one show at a time.
- The Night Carrots are vocalist Waverly Lye, 14, bassist Eva Lagstein, 14, drummer Clementine Anderson, 13, and her sister, guitarist Lola Anderson, 11.
Driving the news: The band just released its first music video, directed by Lagstein's cousin Jake Tannenbaum, to go along with a studio cut of their anthem, "Surfboard Song."
- "I'm gonna ride my surfboard to school, all my other friends are gonna think I'm super cool," Lye sings.
Flashback: The four girls were in a pandemic pod in 2020, and started the band in hopes it be a constructive escape from remote school.
- They picked up instruments, started practicing and by the time the world opened up, they had the chops to play at South Park's semi-regular DIY festival, Porchfest.
Reality check: They were all McKinley Elementary students when the band started, but the pandemic was long enough ago that Lye and Lagstein are now high schoolers.
- Lola is the last remaining McKinley student.
State of play: The Night Carrots have become a featured attraction at the quarterly South Park Walkabout, where neighborhood kids pack the front row, know the band members by name and eagerly await a set list featuring classics by the White Stripes, Cranberries, Blondie, Elastica and Joan Jett.
- They show off their personalities with coordinated stage banter, matching attire like fluorescent pant suits, a Lola guitar solo upside down behind her head while pacing theatrically during Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walking," Clementine's bug eye sunglasses while she dominates her drum kit, and Lagstein goading the crowd into applause when she thinks a song was "snazzy."
Behind the scenes: Initially, the band learned simple songs they could all play, often from their parents' suggestions.
- "But we don't need the adults in our decisions anymore," Lye told Axios during one of their twice weekly rehearsals. "It's our band."
- Their cover selection is now a group effort — Clementine hates Green Day, Lola pushed for the Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right," Lagstein and Lye are becoming huge Chappell Roan heads (but the parents still screen songs for appropriate content).
Inside the room: "Our 7th grade math teacher told us we started a trend, lots of kids are forming bands now," Lagstein said.
- "Younger kids will sometimes yell and say 'Hey aren't you in the Night Carrots?'" Lola said. "Especially around McKinley, that's where we're most well known."
- They play school fundraisers often, and have shouted support to San Diego Unified teachers from the stage after layoff notices went out. "We're around teachers all the time, and we see they need stuff," Lye said.
- None of them are thinking of music as a future career. "But I think I'll be in bands my whole life," said Clementine, who also plays in her school's jazz band.
What's next: Each Night Carrot also offers music lessons.
- They've got upcoming gigs for a Girl Scout campout on April 11, McKinley's spring fundraiser on April 27, South Park Porchfest on May 4 and Gold Hill Elementary's spring fest on May 17.
The bottom line: At SoNo Chili Fest in 2024, they debuted another original, "Seen and Heard."
- "We will be/Seen and heard/We might just spill the tea," Lye sings. "We're told to be good listeners/And that we must obey/We're told that dessert can't be first/But I say 'pass the cake!'"