By: Pat O'Brien
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The Thermals - Publicity Photo
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I'd be lying if I said I didn’t go into shows with some expectation of the how the night will play out. But every so often my expectations are turned on their ear and I’m more entertained than I thought I would be. Saturday was one of those nights. Both bands released albums recently that attacked religion from different angles and while I wasn’t expecting anti-religious rants or the like, I was expecting a more somber or “educational” tone. I’m certainly glad it wasn’t.
The Thermals tore into their set like a rhino on crystal meth with “A Stare Like Yours” from their 2004 release, Fuckin’ A, and 10 seconds in, I knew the night would be much different than I had imagined. The song was much, much more volatile and fun than on record – which is quite a feat – and their set grew even more dangerous from there. Exploding dynamite couldn’t have equaled the ferocity of the music, a precarious and precocious mix of punk and indie-rock that plays like a buzz saw combined with the feeling you had the first time you made out with someone you really liked a lot – the reward is certainly gratifying, even if it stings a little.
Their new album, The Body, The Blood, The Machine, contains lyrics that envision a government run by a fascist Christian regime (not a stretch, given the events of the past few years), but they make it easy to swallow with fiery, raw two- or three-chord riffs from lead singer/guitarist Hutch Harris and bouncy rhythms from bassist (and my new rock-girl crush) Kathy Foster, who never stopped moving for their entire set – not even once.
A few songs into the set they brought up new member and guitarist Joel Burrows for the crushing, slippery “St. Rosa And The Swallows,” and they retrofitted a few songs from Fuckin’ A to include him as well, showing some depth, which they often are accused of not having. During their set, I realized something I had missed earlier: The Thermals are one of my favorite bands. The crowd was buzzing and alive when their set was over. There is beauty in simplicity, and there is hardly a more beautiful band (or certainly bassist) than The Thermals right now.
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Cursive - Publicity Photo
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Church bells chimed and we were welcomed to Happy Hollow, Cursive’s new album, which pitches sharply pointed darts at the hypocrisy of religion and also has a few barbs for people who blindly follow without questioning. They started with the roaring, grinding, horn-filled “Big Bang.” With lyrics like, “They say there was a big bang once but the clergyman doesn’t agree / there was this big bang once but it doesn’t jive with Adam and Eve,” the reference was obvious, and I thought we might be in for a “lesson,” but the band effortlessly segued from the big ideas contained on Happy Hollow to songs from their earlier albums Domestica, which dissected lead singer Tim Kasher’s nasty divorce, and The Ugly Organ, which laid painfully bare the fallout from said divorce (pointless sex, misguided rage) and back again.
In light of such weighty subjects, the band was loose and comfortable; they were quite impressed with the turnout and said so multiple times. They also spoke of The Thermals no-frills work ethic, which, with Cursive being from Midwestern Omaha, Nebraska, must be a particularly enticing trait. They also did some retrofitting of their own with horn and string (namely, a cello) arrangements for many of their songs that previously featured none of those instruments.
They hit their stride about five songs in with “So-So Gigolo,” a not-so-heartwarming tale of a young man who heads to the big city to become an actor, but ends up selling himself on the street. Now, you might think that these subject matters serve only to depress the audience but they wrapped these ideas in a catchy, arty, occasionally funky package. I found myself bobbing my head to “Dorothy At 40,” the imagined adulthood of Wizard Of Oz heroine Dorothy Gale, now awash in thwarted dreams and heartbreak, living only to work, her only solace coming when she sleeps. In that way I liken Cursive to Rage Against The Machine a little bit – they caused me to consider what I’m doing with my own life without me really realizing they had done it until later.
“We all know art is hard, when we don’t know who we are,” sung Kasher during “Art Is Hard,” but Cursive know exactly who they are, and they make a topical discussion or a little introspective thought afterward look like a walk in the park.
Cursive’s Setlist:
Big Bang
Making Friends & Acquaintances
Butcher The Song
Tall Tales
So-So Gigolo
The Recluse
Game Of Who Needs Who The Worst
Dorothy At 40
Bad Science
The Casualty
The Road To Financial Stability
Some Red Handed Sleight Of Hand
Hymns For The Heathen
Encore:
Babies
Art Is Hard
A Gentleman Caller
Location Info:
First Avenue
Artist Info: Cursive, The Thermals
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