Arts & Entertainment

 

 

The Thermals w/Romance,
February 22 @ The Media Club

Luke Simcoe, OP Columnist

Le get one thing straight before
we begin. If you ever go to a show at
The Media Club, and the tickets say
something like “Doors @ 8pm,” this
means that the first band won’t be
onstage until 9:30 if you’re lucky or
10:30 if you’re not. I love the venue,
but it’s got limited seating, so show up
early or late, otherwise you'll be stuck
leaning against the bar for an hour and
a half.

This particular night, local indie-
powerpoppers Romance didn’t arrive
onstage until 9:45. I’ve had particularly
bad luck with opening acts at The Media
Club, but these guys were worth the
wait. The sound was excellent (kudos
to the sound guy), and their frontman
poured his heart and soul into almost
every song. He also bore an uncanny
resemblance to Rivers Cuomo — haircut,
glasses, mannerisms; all he was missing
was a lightning bolt guitar strap — and I
couldn’t stop the Weezer comparisons
from bouncing around inside my head.
I'd definitely go see them again.

The Thermals arrived at their
Canadian debut with a mission: to
show the crowd that they’ve got more
than one good record. Although they
opened with the first three tracks from
the critically acclaimed The Body, the
Blood, the Machine, they put to rest any
fears that they would play their loosely
conceptual record front to back by
launching into a set that drew heavily
from 2004’s Fuckin A. The bass-driven
sing-along “How We Know” was an
obvious highlight from their sophomore
record, but “A Stare Like Yours” was
the song that finally got the crowd

dancing.

Despite the band’s best efforts,
the crowd was most enthusiastic for
material from The Body...“A Pillar of
Salt,” the band’s biggest single, sparked
a mosh pit that had the usually laid
back “bouncers” at The Media Club
performing a bit of crowd control, and
when Hutch Harris took on the persona
of a neo-fascist Christian corpocrat
during “Power Doesn’t Run on
Nothing,” I felt genuinely threatened by
his taunts of “Give us what we’re asking
for / Because either way we’re going to
take it.”

After wrapping up their set with
“Returning to the Fold,” the Portland
quartet returned for a three-song encore
beginning with “God and Country.”
One look at Hutch Harris’ face when
he sings “Pray for a new state / Pray
for assassination,” and there’s no
doubting his convictions. The show
closed with “It’s Trivia” from the band’s
debut More Parts Per Million. It’s not
The Thermal’s greatest tune by any
stretch, but it is the song that Hummer
wanted to use for a commercial (the
band made headlines when they turned
down the auto manufacturer’s $50,000
offer, saying “‘it was just too evil’), so
closing with it made a statement: The
Thermals clearly believe that they still
have something to say and something to
prove.

If I could sum up the show ina
single word it would be “urgency.” The
Thermals played almost two albums
worth of material over their course of
their set, kept the stage banter to an
absolute minimum and let their driving,
three-chord anthems do the talking.

 

 

On the Tube:

“What Goes Around Comes Around” by

Justin Timberlake

Mark Fisher, OP Contributor

JUSTIN TIMBE: 5
UTURESEX/LOVY,

 

Missi videos are probably one

of the most, if not the most important
ways that mainstream musical acts
market themselves. But with MTV and
other music channels broadcasting more
and more reality shows every week,
artists have to make their videos extra
special in order to get them noticed.
Getting FHM Magazine's title
of Sexiest Woman in the World will
certainly get you noticed. Hell, it made
me actually watch a Justin Timberlake
video, so he must be doing something
right. Unfortunately, aside from a
make-out scene in a swimming pool,
Scarlett’s looks aren’t put to any good
use. Though apparently her good looks
give her the ability to go flying through
a windshield after a car chase and
not get a single cut — or even her hair
messed up.

   
 

Sorry if I spoiled the ending, but I
couldn’t let it slide without comment.
The theme of the song — “What Goes
Around Comes Around” — would
probably lead you to think that after
Scarlett cheats on Justin with his best
friend, he would do that same to her.
Instead, the song and video seem to be
indicating that Justin thinks that if a girl
cheats on him, then the fair payback is
to physically threaten her, chase after
her in his car, and then have her die in a
horrific crash. Take notes guys, because
with the way girls love this guy,
threatening behavior is IN this year.

Rating: 1 Dick in a Box out of 5
(Actually, on second though, 5 dicks
in a box would actually be pretty damn
disgusting, so this video deserves a 5
instead)

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