The Thermals Do High School

For me, the Thermals and Menomena benefit show at Cleveland High School was as much about the people as it was the bands. For my "review" review, click onto Pitchfork here. When I arrived, there was already a band on. I assumed it was the Bustling Townships, but after a few minutes spent playing phone tag with the Thermals' Hutch, I found out it was Menomena who I mistakenly had thought would be playing last on the bill. So I braved my way through the throng of teenagers in front of the stage to shoot a couple songs of their set, before shooting the final song side of stage. They kept making comments to the audience and asking them "Are you ready to get naked with the Thermals?" (?!)

I also mistakenly thought that it would be in the gym. Having it in the auditorium gave it much more of a 'real concert' sound/setting/feel. I was really looking forward to it being in the gym too! I ran into Mr. Joey Sato who taught (and still teaches) at Lincoln when I went there. He instantly recognized me and pointed out that I was "the one who was always in Curry's on the internet on eBay." hahaha I was totally addicted to eBay back then - I sold magazine cut-outs of celebrities (specializing in Orlando Bloom and the Olsen Twins) and as surprising as it may sound, that generated a fair share of income.
Before the Thermals got their set started I chatted with Jason Simms of Willamette Week about the most recent house party of his that Peter and the Wolf turned up to play - one that I unfortunately had to miss when it happened due to work. Jason sent me a lovely postcard a few weeks ago from Missoula when he was in Montana researching the book he is writing with former WWeek music editor Mark Baumgarten.
The Thermals played their set like the last time I saw them - full of energy, super tight, and to the point. Other than an announcement of "Good Evening Cleveland!" there wasn't much conversation to speak of between the band and audience, because there were very few and far between breaks between songs in which to talk - they just played song after song, only stopping to tune a guitar, count into a song, or to readjust pedals after a girl jumped from the stage and took the cords with her. Their set list was spread across two taped together pages. I stood side of the stage with the other photog of the night who turned out to be Willamette Week's Justin Kent (who inadvertently snapped me at the Gossip concert last month). We made comments about the mosh pit and crowd-surfing situation (someone would launch themselves and immediately drop straight to the floor :) and he offered me use of his rental lens that had a wonderfully wide aperture. After the show the Thermals looted some of Menomena's merch. It was funny. The crowd dissipated and the people that were left were primarily the ones involved in the organization of the event. Here is Dash, Lincoln High School senior and man of the hour: It is he who just straight up emailed the Thermals asking if they'd play. After he finished an interview, I took a couple photos of him and talked to him about ticket sales. Some 600 were sold! That's when Arya came over. Apparently we've been at the exact same concerts for the past week without knowing (he'd only find out via my reviews on Pfork) - Arctic Monkeys, YACHT on a yacht, and then Thermals. It was enjoyable making his acquaintance. He's doing some uber cool things within the PDX music scene with his radio show on KPSU . Earlier that week he had the Thermals in for an acoustic in-studio. On June first he has Eskimo & Sons.

So that introduction actually led to perhaps the highlight of my night - speaking to David Abravanel, a friend who I haven't seen for four years, even though we've been mutually stalking each other over the internets for the past couple months. It was so fun! We totally took music geekery to nu (and yes that's a Klaxons reference) levels - with me perhaps going overboard, but I couldn't help it - it was David! When I brought back So Solid Crew vinyl from London in 2002, he was the only other person in school who had heard of them. When I mentioned my speaking to him to my mom, she briefly couldn't remember him until I was like "The one you had to ask repeatedly for your copy of Q magazine back in like 2001," and all their and our collective music conversations came back to her.

We also reminisced over the club I started called Dorks Anonymous (the most popular club in Lincoln High School history in terms of attendance - what, what!). I got Pepsi and Pizza Hut to sponsor our meetings and Albertson's donated about twenty cakes each time. At the first meeting we all just ate and watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It was awesome. I met up with someone at a party in December who said they and a friend still wear their Dorks Anonymous hooded sweatshirts on campus at Oregon State. Here is Tom Vek wearing mine (I had a custom "Hello My Name is" badge screen-printed on each one):

He's been branded haha

David mentioned that I mentioned Yo Majesty on this blog. Apparently the person who runs It's the Money Shot goes to Wesleyan with him and David was actually going to enter the Yo Majesty remix contest that site had a bit back. I was aware of that contest because Tyler Fedchuk mentioned entering it on his site. So David's is half done and when he sends it over, I intend to put it up here.

'Club Action' Yo Majesty Tyler Fedchuk mix MP3 (which came in 2nd in the comp)

(Another great 'Club Action' remix by CSS can be heard here: www.myspace.com/cssremixxx)

The night was SO much fun! I think it's also worth noting that the Thermal's label didn't even know about the show. There was such a great vibe to the night - like everyone was there to support and enjoy good Portland music. I think I have a bit of a crizz-ush on the Thermals' drummer Lorin :) He's so meek chic with a lot of (silent :) personality and smiles

'A Pillar of Salt' Thermals MP3

Willamette Week/LocalCut review of the show

Comments

[JJS III]

Wait! Wait! Wait!

Who is this David character you speak of?