August 10 2007: The Thermals, the Big Sleep - Maxwell's, Hoboken NJ
Second stop on the list: moderately priced punk rock in New Jersey.
I’d never been to Hoboken. It seemed like a perfectly nice town for the ten blocks that I walked between the PATH station and Maxwell’s. And there was a nice view of Manhattan from the waterfront. But not such a nice town in that there wasn’t anyone I could sell an extra ticket to. Oh well. The show was moderately priced, after all.
The Big Sleep opened, making this the third time I’ve seen them open a show this year. And I still don’t much dig them. But then the !!!Thermals!!! came on stage as a !!!trio!!! I could barely contain myself. I think they opened with “I Might Need You to Kill” and then went right into “An Ear for Baby,” but memory can be hazy sometimes. But they definitely played a whole lot of great songs like “God and Country” and “Back to Grey” and “No Culture Icons” and “Overgrown, Overblown” and “Ultra Violet” and “Here’s Your Future” and “Pillar of Salt” (way better as a trio than the way they played it in Cambridge earlier this year as a fourpiece) and “St. Rosa and the Swallows.”
And it was just so great to see them at such a small place. Probably the smallest place I’ve seen them play since 2004, when they were doing an after-the-Pixies-show show in Bend (Oregon, naturally).
And I always think it’s pretty stupid when the band does the whole “hello X town!” thing, and at this show Hutch at one point asks “Who here’s from Brooklyn?” and some of the crowd cheers. And then “Who here’s from Manhattan?” and “Who here’s from Jersey?” But then after this he asks, nay demands, “AND WHO HERE’S FROM PORTLAND?!?!?!!!!,” and he was just so excited about Portland that I could not help myself as my right fist punched the sky and I responded, “Woo!” And then I felt kind of dumb, but it was ok. Cause fuckin PORTLAND man!
And then as if to entirely justify my above described actions, they covered “Big Dipper” and it was fucking amazing and I’ve never been so glad to hear a song that’s not a Thermals song at a Thermals show. And they followed that up with “It’s Only Trivia” and then that was it and I left floating.
I’d never been to Hoboken. It seemed like a perfectly nice town for the ten blocks that I walked between the PATH station and Maxwell’s. And there was a nice view of Manhattan from the waterfront. But not such a nice town in that there wasn’t anyone I could sell an extra ticket to. Oh well. The show was moderately priced, after all.
The Big Sleep opened, making this the third time I’ve seen them open a show this year. And I still don’t much dig them. But then the !!!Thermals!!! came on stage as a !!!trio!!! I could barely contain myself. I think they opened with “I Might Need You to Kill” and then went right into “An Ear for Baby,” but memory can be hazy sometimes. But they definitely played a whole lot of great songs like “God and Country” and “Back to Grey” and “No Culture Icons” and “Overgrown, Overblown” and “Ultra Violet” and “Here’s Your Future” and “Pillar of Salt” (way better as a trio than the way they played it in Cambridge earlier this year as a fourpiece) and “St. Rosa and the Swallows.”
And it was just so great to see them at such a small place. Probably the smallest place I’ve seen them play since 2004, when they were doing an after-the-Pixies-show show in Bend (Oregon, naturally).
And I always think it’s pretty stupid when the band does the whole “hello X town!” thing, and at this show Hutch at one point asks “Who here’s from Brooklyn?” and some of the crowd cheers. And then “Who here’s from Manhattan?” and “Who here’s from Jersey?” But then after this he asks, nay demands, “AND WHO HERE’S FROM PORTLAND?!?!?!!!!,” and he was just so excited about Portland that I could not help myself as my right fist punched the sky and I responded, “Woo!” And then I felt kind of dumb, but it was ok. Cause fuckin PORTLAND man!
And then as if to entirely justify my above described actions, they covered “Big Dipper” and it was fucking amazing and I’ve never been so glad to hear a song that’s not a Thermals song at a Thermals show. And they followed that up with “It’s Only Trivia” and then that was it and I left floating.
posted by Peter Sohriakoff | 1:40 AM
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