WHO?The Thermals, with the Big Sleep and Tight Phantomz.
WHERE?Subterranean (Read the NBN review here)
WHEN? 7 pm, Feb. 28th, 2007.
HOW MUCH? $12 from the Subterranean box office, $14.50 on TicketWeb. Sold out a couple of days before.
Tight Phantomz (check out the sweet performance video on their MySpace!) took the stage about twenty minutes late. All I knew about the band at this point was their name and the fact that their drumset was covered with some kind of weird translucent fur. Honestly, I was expecting something light-hearted. Maybe even something like the Unicorns. The band name is pretty whimsical, I think. While they’re getting everything together, I check out their hair and I figure either these dudes are super ironic hipster kids or really into the Misfits. The stage was soaked in grimy red lights and a slight fog of cigarette smoke.
Then they started playing, and I knew Tight Phantomz were really into the Misfits. The lead singer and guitar player, who I later learned is named Mike Lust, started shredding on the guitar and careening around the stage like a wild man. Thumping drums and a bass line to match kept the pace while Lust kept up the acrobatics both on the guitar and on the stage. Sometime during the first song he attempted a full-on rock kick and fell flat on his ass. He wandered up to the microphone.
“Never seen somebody drunk at seven before?” he asked the audience. “That was not intended. That was enthusiasm. That was pumped-uped-ness.” He even mentioned the Misfits in his stage banter before getting back to business: totally rocking. Admittedly, I’m not really into flashy guitar playing or metal, but I’m a sucker for spectacle. And Lust looks awesome on stage. He had this high-kick cymbal crash that was really awesome. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand a single word he was singing That’s probably because of the combination of the guitar being too loud, the mic being too low and Lust being too drunk. The guitar virtuosity dominated the music. Lyrics, song structure, rhythm, drumming — everything faded away as most songs fell into one big guitar solo.
Lust later dedicated a song to ZZ Top, James Brown and the Meters, saying that all three were huge influences. It’s hard not to respect a band that works this hard and has this much fun on stage. By the time they got off stage I was just about to swear my immortal soul to the pursuit of headbanging, drinking cheap beer and listening to metal. Luckily, I snapped out of it.
The Big Sleep was on next. I was really excited coming into this show. They had toured with The Hold Steady a few months ago, and I heard great things about them. Plus, they brought their own stark white flood lights. They had all these weird-looking instruments on stage, a girl bass player standing behind a synth, a huge drummer, and a longhair with a guitar, synthesizer, some kind of contraption and some really well-fitting jeans.
Then they started playing and the feedback kicked in.
Now, I can listen to some loud music. Feedback is awesome. I respect Metal Machine Music.I love Gang of Four’s “Anthrax.” But this was something altogether. The feedback was just so incredibly loud. I had my ears covered and I was in physical pain. I couldn’t hear anything but the guitar feedback screeching in my ears for the entire performance. I know, on some level, that drums, vocals, synth, and bass were present. But I couldn’t tell you a single thing about them. That’s really a shame, because the music on the Big Sleep myspace is nuanced and interesting. Check it out, but duck to the back if you’re at a live show.
Around 9:10 or so, it was finally time for the Thermals to come on. Their signature drumset was pulled on stage, and soon all four of the Thermals filed in and took up their respective places. The crowd was immediately appreciative, with lots of wild yelling and cheering. They broke right into “Here’s Your Future” from The Body, the Blood, the Machine and started blazing through their short poppy punk songs. The Body, the Blood, the Machine, their newest LP, is a concept album about a couple escaping from a fundamentalist state gripped by industrial capitalism and the thirst for oil — so, you know, roughly three months from now. You know that one verse in “Highway 61″ that starts “God said to Abraham…” or the other verse in Silver Jews’ “Pet Politics” about Adam? The whole album is kind of like that, except played by the Ramones or maybe John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats.
The Thermals seem like they would be a great band live, and they didn’t disappoint. They have short, high energy songs that suit themselves well to being played live, and the audience was enthusiastic. Despite the fact that we were jam-packed up against the stage, people were still dancing. One guy even attempted to stage dive (I think he crowd surfed for roughly 2 seconds). At least fifty percent of the audience was singing along for the tracks from The Body, The Blood, The Machine. Hutch Harrison, the frontman of the group, has a spastic energy about him that gets worked out with plenty of wild hand gestures and facial expressions. He plays his guitar only sporadically, letting the other guitarist handle most of the duties, spending most of the time singing the rants that make up most of the newer songs. Sometimes Hutch seems like someone yelling on a soapbox that just happens to have a band behind him, but I certainly don’t mean that as an insult.
Kathy Foster delivered some of the best bass that I’ve seen live. Bouncing around on stage with a blissful look on her face, she reflected the energy she was driving in her quick basslines, which were clearly audible but not overwhelming. It’s little wonder that people were singing and dancing along with that kind of encouragement. The bassline never got lost under the vocals or the guitar, which gave every song a certain intensity that got the audience worked up fast. Standout live tracks were “Here’s Your Future,” “St. Rosa and the Swallows,” “Everything Thermals” (the Thermals’ theme song) and “Back to the Sea.” People were making friendly drunken cat-calls halfway through the set, which went by fast — the average Thermals song can’t be more than three minutes long. Hutch joked with the audience, telling us that he really “felt” that last song and was worried that it had gotten a little emo. As they steadily made their way down the set list, someone in the back yelled, “PLAY FIVE MORE!” Hutch muttered under his breath into the microphone something along the lines of, “That’s not how it works. We have to play one more song, go off stage, come back on, play some more. It’s politics.”
They disappeared for a minute or two and the crowd went wild when they walked back down the winding staircase at the back of the stage. Unfortunately, it was pushing 10:30, and since this was an all-ages show, the Thermals only got to play three more quick songs before everyone under 21 had to be ushered out. You know what they say: “Always leave’m wanting more.”
Overall, it was a diverse performance bill. Neither of the opening bands are particularly sonically similar to the Thermals, or for that matter similar to each other. It was strange seeing a hard rock act, a feedback holocaust and an indie pop band all in the same night. The crowd sure was thick too, and there were certainly enough flashes going off to remind me why most venues don’t allow cameras in. But the Thermals were just as good live as I thought they would be, and the other bands were interesting — I’d go see Tight Phantomz again, rock kicks are boss. Everyone had a good time, especially the bands on stage, and we could have kept going if it weren’t for the Man and his curfew on our younger brethren.
ROCK’N'ROLL DOESN’T HAVE A BED TIME!
There are always more pictures than good excuses to put them on the review. Check out the ones that didn’t make the cut here.