Show Date : April 9, 2009
Explode into Colors is interesting. 2 drum kits and a bass. To be honest, I was expecting an unholy racket. But it was fun. I am a fan. Too bad they had problems with sound and cut a tinge short. You all rocked it.
Thought this conversation overheard during the Parenthetical Grils was interesting.
Guy: Your breath doesn’t smell that great in the morning either. There, I said it.
Mumble/garbled
Girl: I said, what, I didn’t hear anything you said
Guy: I said I love you…
The Thermals. Portland’s own and all that. Yay. Record release for their new one (fourth!) Now We Can See.
The Thermals have dubbed themselves post-pop-punk rock. Whatever. All I know is their first three albums rock. They can call it washtub and jug rock for all I care. And bonus points to any band brave enough to name an album Fuckin A. So yeah, what about the gig?
Kathy Foster plays bass and has a great stage presence. Hutch Harris is a good live performer and there would never be a worry about a bad show. But. I think we may have new album blues here. How does this one fit in? …Because live right now the energy from the crowd for old to new is different. And I think the band is working through that as well. Let’s bleed positive though. The old stuff is a lot of fun…and the band kicked ass through some of the older songs : Here’s Your Future, Pillar Of Salt, Returning To The Fold, No Culture Icons, & How We Know all had a 7 person deep pit bouncing up and down. Now We Can See from the new album did as well. But I think nothing else really had that fire. Makes me sad, the crowd was the usual wide array of age/appearance swatch of a Portland rock show. A lot of people that could have been converted to hard cores with an awesome show. Maybe they had sound problems too, or maybe my personal energy was off. But I don’t think so…..next time. Because the high points of this show were definitely enough to keep me coming back for more.
