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Three years since the release of ‘The Body, the Blood, the Machine,’ the band has become an indie favorite, embraced by the hype machine, with praise lavished upon them by Pitchfork and the Onion’s A.V. Club, respectively.
With a new album in tow and a slate of festival appearances lined up for this summer, Tuesday night’s show at the Pearl Street Basement saw The Thermals getting a chance to give something back. The band brought along a contingent of their
Point Junction, WA opened up the show with a shifting, psychedelic vibe. The second opener, The Shaky Hands, offered another taste of northwestern sonic time travel with a number of twisting song structures harking back to a purer musical era.
When The Thermals finally walked on stage around 10 p.m., they immediately launched into the raw ‘I Might Need You to Kill,’ from ‘The Body, the Blood, the Machine.’
‘It’s [expletive] Tuesday, its Cinco de Mayo,’ said guitarist and vocalist Hutch Harris, gesturing towards the large lime-colored cactus balloons that the band had brought on stage for the occasion. ‘Quite the fiesta, huh?’
With a howl like The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle and a skinny, uncomfortable frame reminiscent of a young David Byrne, Harris seems right at home on stage. For most of the show, however, there was a lack of stage banter, with Harris and the rest of The Thermals preferring instead to pound through their short blasts of lo-fi rock one after another, as if possessed by an urge to shred eardrums.
Harris’ lack of chattiness could have been due to the light crowd of less than 100 in the Pearl Street Basement on Tuesday night. Attendance clearly was affected by cold rain, and the upcoming rush of finals, as the Five Colleges prepare to close for the summer.
Harris, bassist Kathy Foster and drummer Westin Glass certainly have a tight feel for their songs, after touring nearly non-stop since the release of their last album. The band tore through a mix of 2006 and 2009 material at a rapid-fire pace, with their dynamics generally going from loud to louder. After playing ‘How We Know’ and ‘Back to Grey,’ The Thermals attacked the fan favorite ‘Pillar of Salt,’ which got the audience gyrating.
A few minor problems in the mixing of the guitars affected the first couple songs, but by the middle of the set these issues seemed to have been resolved, for the most part.
Harris largely eschewed guitar heroics in favor of churning power chords, and the rest of the band tended to agree with his focus on simplicity. The band chewed through 2006’s ‘St. Rosa and the Swallows’ and ‘Here’s Your Future’ with ease, along with newer songs such as ‘You Dissolve,’ and their new single ‘Now You Can See.’
Harris’ lyrics often emerge as cult-like chants and shouts, incorporating religious symbolism and social critique along with more typical indie fare ‘mdash; relationships and self-defeat.
‘God reached his hand down from the sky / God asked Noah if he wanted to die /He said, no sir, oh, no sir! / God said, Here’s your future … It’s gonna rain …’ sings Harris in ‘Here’s Your Future.’ ‘So we’re packing our things / We’re building a boat / We’re gonna create the new master race / ‘Cause we’re so pure, oh Lord we’re so pure…’ While not exactly heretical, the song’s lyrics certainly don’t aim to bring smiles to the faces of the devout.
After hammering out the older song ‘No Culture Icons,’ Harris announced that the next song would be their last. True to their word, following ‘It’s Trivia,’ The Thermals put down their instruments and walked off stage. With a bravado normally reserved for more grandiose acts, The Thermals declined to give an encore, despite the determined shouts of those demanding more, even after the lights came on.
It remains to be seen if Harris and the rest of The Thermals can live up to the hefty hype that they’ve garnered thus far. However, their
Nick Bush can be reached at [email protected].
