The Thermals/The Big Sleep/Heather Lawless @ Bowery Ballroom - NYC

Good ol' Bowery Ballroom. Probably my favorite venue in NYC due to it's intimate size, great sound, and awesome shows. Although I was upset that I couldn't see The Thermals play a much smaller show at TT the Bear's in Cambridge, MA the night before, I figured the Bowery show would suffice.

Comedian Heather Lawless opened up the night with a set of awkward humor. She appeared to be pretty nervous, interjecting lots of "um"s and pauses between jokes. The audience, who seemed to have a few drinks in them by this point, seemed receptive and although some of her jokes worked and some clearly didn't, she got a pretty good response.

The Big Sleep were up next and I must say they absolutely killed it. I had listened to their CD and was not left too impressed. I liked a few songs, but the album as a whole just didn't work and I really had no desire to check it out again. After their performance last night, however, I will definitely be checking them out again. They have a very similar sound to Sonic Youth, right down to the female vocals, with lots of crashing cymbals and heavy bass lines. Although they played a mostly instrumental set, the music kept everyone in a daze, wondering where they were going to take things next. I thought the pairing of them with The Thermals was sort of odd, considering The Big Sleep have a more laid-back sound, but they certainly kept everyone's attention and left more than a few people impressed.

After a brief wait, The Thermals hit the stage and plowed right through a 20+ song set. The group played a really good mix of new and old stuff, which had the crowd dancing and singing along for an hour straight to the band's pop-punk songs packed with slightly nasally vocals and 3-chord guitars. Lead singer Hutch Harris bounced around the stage throughout the set and seemed like he was barely able to stand still for more than 5 seconds. My main complaint with their set, which is coincidentally my same feeling about The Thermals, is that all their songs sort of run together. Especially during a set with so many songs, which all have a similar sort of sound, and very few breaks in between, it felt like the set went on a little longer than it should have. Granted, I do like The Thermals, but even when listening to their newest album, I start to lose interest by the last couple of tracks, mainly because I feel like I have heard it all before. Despite that, it's always great to see the audience and the band feeding off one another's energy and creating a fun, live experience.

The Thermals Set List (as copied off the set list, so I don't really know the full titles for some of the older stuff):
Here's Your Future, Need to Kill, Ear for Baby, Stare, Passing, Brace, Born Dead, How Know, St. Rosa, Hold Sound, Trip, Stitch, Earthquake, Back to the Sea, Culture, Power, Thermals, Gray, Pillar of Salt, Returning - Encore: God, Earthy, Trivia

The Thermals and The Big Sleep are playing at Studio B in Brooklyn, NY tonight (3/5).

More pics up at the flickr page, unfortunately I didn't have my normal camera with me, so they did not come out too great. Oh well.

Heather Lawless



The Big Sleep





The Thermals