The Thermals Sway The Crowd At The El Rey Theatre
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Photo by Holly Butcher
Energy ran high as The Thermals launched into the catchy riff and "oh oh oh"'s of "I Don't Believe You" - the second track on their latest release, "Personal Life" (Kill Rock Stars). The live rendition lived up to the tight, upbeat recording, sounding almost identical. But this time, a lively audience was singing the chorus back.
From there, the band gave Thermals fans of all eras something to sway to - new, old and mid-career material. From "Pillar Of Salt" to "I Might Need You To Kill" to "It's Trivia", and "Your Love Is Strong" to "Never Listen to Me", the music blared and the fans danced. Of course, the majority of their set centered around the newer material, but the audience responded well.
The threesome had solid chemistry onstage, perhaps from months of touring this fall in support of "Life." At several points throughout the set, guitarist/singer Hutch Harris and bassist/singer Kathy Foster turned to face the newest Thermal, drummer Westin Glass, and played off each other's momentum. This made it look almost as if the audience were peeking in on an intimate rehearsal or recording session.
Stage banter came mostly from Harris, who - not surprisingly given their soft spot for politics - brought up the Nov. 2 election before the song "We Were Sick. ("U.S.A.! The best country of all times…We have a really great, patriotic crowd tonight, nice to see. Did you guys all vote? You didn't vote for the weed.")
The highlight, at least for any kid growing up in the 90s, came at the final encore: a cover of Weezer's "My Name Is Jonas." And they pulled it off. In doing so, The Thermals showed that good, honest alternative rock isn't dead. Even if bands like Weezer are doing their best to kill it.
Read Neon Tommy's interview with drummer Westin Glass here.
Comments
[...] The Thermals Sway The Crowd At The El Rey TheatreNeon Tommy2 election before the song "We Were Sick. ("USA! The best country of all times?We have a really great, patriotic crowd tonight, nice to see. … [...]
Hutch Harris with a slightly sore throat and all kicked ass as they all did. Kathy's bass sounded especially potent last night. It almost had a bit of a synth overtone. In any event, with a 3 piece band the bass mix and sound is so incredibly important and her bass did not disappoint. Their whole show was basically like a runaway train that didn't stop except for, as you point out, some of the fun banter between the audience and Hutch. Call me sentimental but, what the hell, it was actually quite heart warming to hear the pro-USA vibe glowing off of The Thermals. It is oftentimes the case that it becomes quite popular, especially with alt bands to kind of be down on America and we do do some questionable things abroad and domestically BUT it was refreshing to see Hutch say what he said-- (and the take on Canada was hilarious). The show was so damn good.
White Fang was fucking stoopid, in a good way. I almost did a spit take which pissed me off because my beer cost me 7 bucks. Someone needs to tell those guys to loosen up and have fun on stage and not take life so seriously.
The Lovely Bad Things surprised the hell out of me. The songs were solid and I got dizzy watching them all switch up instruments. On the way, out someone gave me a hand flyer for the FYF Christmas show and I noticed they are on the bill so I look forward to seeing them again.
EL REY rocked as usual!!!!