The Thermals | The Big Sleep in Brooklyn
< author: james >
When we interviewed French Kiss Records’ The Big Sleep back in November, Sonia mentioned that she had really fallen in love with The Thermals (particularly “Pillar of Salt”). Thus, I was pretty excited for them when I read that they would be opening up for The Thermals on a big national tour, and I made sure I got myself a ticket for the Brooklyn show. I went for The Big Sleep, but The Thermals are what made the night fantastic.
The Big Sleep: We write about this band a lot. With only one album they have somehow garnered a number 1 spot on our LastFM, they’ve played our space twice now, and if you’ve been in Relative Theory more than three times you’ve probably heard us playing Son of the Tiger. Needless to say, we dig this band. I’ve never caught them at home but this was my second Big Sleep experience in NYC so I more or less knew what was coming. The slow heavy jams, the smooth headbanging to swirly and fuzzy guitar instrumentals (with the occasional, practically inaudible vocal line) was all familiar territory. But the second Danny hit the first chord, I didn’t get fuzz and swirl; I got a big fat crunch. At first I thought something was wrong with his amp settings, but as the set progressed I realized that The Big Sleep are moving into heavier, crunchier (I just can’t think of a better adjective) sound than what we got on the first album. Back in November, they described their new material as lush, but on only one of the many new songs played that night did I truly note the presence of that gentle descriptor. There was one gentler song where Danny actually sang most of the time and the song came across as traditional songwriting (not instrumental with vocals on top). It was mellower and a bit more straightforward than most of their songs, and it was the first time I’ve agreed with the Pavement comparison I’ve heard thrown around this band. It seems for the sophomore release we will be seeing a crunchy and heavy yet simple and beautiful new direction for TBS. Overall, they were very solid and I really dig their music, but the issue I’ve had twice now is that The Big Sleep tends to open up for really fast energetic bands (last time Les Savy Fav, this time The Thermals) and most often I’ve noticed that the audience does not seem too receptive to heavy slow jams in this setting. As interesting as the music can be, half the crowd seems to have given up on gentle headbanging by halfway through. The Big Sleep really puts on a great show; I just think maybe next time they should hop on a Hydra Head tour.
The Thermals: If this is what most pop-punk sounded like today I never would have given up on the genre at thirteen years old. To be honest, I wasn’t that into The Thermals before (or rather, hadn’t listened to much), but I was blown away by their live show. After just two minutes my jaw was agape and I had one thought in my head: I need to see more bands that are breaking out into sweats after just one song. If you’ve never heard The Thermals, they play very catchy, four chord, punk-based, politically-satirical and energetic rock ‘n roll. Their albums (which are fantastic) have been widely praised by punk and indie rockers alike, and I saw just as many Built To Spill shirts as I did Dead Kennedy ones at this show. There wasn’t much stage banter but the lyrics are all sarcastic and tongue in cheek and the audience were involved enough in the singing to keep a sort of constant communication between stage and crowd going all night. In fact, I’d go as far to say this was the highest level of crowd energy I’ve ever seen where they weren’t beating each other up; there wasn’t a single person who wasn’t moving and shouting and jumping and getting into it in any way they can. The sound was fantastic and the band was marvelously solid musically. The drums were pounding right on time with fantastic guitar and bass tone going on top of it. I realize that most of these songs are four chords or less, but there’s something to be said for bands that really do four power chords well. Punk rock is an easy genre to be sloppy with but The Thermals have their sound and performance quality on lockdown. The set was a great mix of material from all three records, and pumping out 23 songs in just over an hour (awesome much?) they made sure every favorite was played. I’m not sure what else to say. This was punk with some serious soul to it. If you’re already a huge Thermals fan, then I admit to my novice-ness but I am becoming one fast; if you are not yet but are always looking to listen to something other than boring indie-pop and shoegaze post-rock, check out their newest album The Body, The Blood, The Machine. If you can listen to “Pillar of Salt” once without immediately throwing it on repeat for about an hour, you’re a stronger person than I.
Thermals Set-List:
Here’s Your Future
I Might Need You To Kill
Ear for Baby
A Stare Like Yours
Passing Feeling
Brace and Break
(Missing Song)
How We Know
St. Rosa and the Swallows
I Hold the Sound
Our Trip
(Missing Song)
Let Your Earth Quake, Baby
Back to the Sea
No Culture Icons
Power Doesn’t Run on Nothing
Everything Thermals
Back to Gray
Pillar of Salt
Return to the Fold
Encore:
God and Country
(missing song)
It’s Trivia
Internal Links:
Relative Review of The Thermal’s The Body, The Blood, The Machine
Relative Interview with The Big Sleep/Les Savy Fav
Relative Review of The Big Sleep’s Son of the Tiger
Relative Updates on The Big Sleep
External Links:
The Thermals’ Website
The Thermals’ Myspace
Sub-Pop Records
The Big Sleep’s Website
French Kiss Records