It has been quite some time now that I have been hankering to see a full live set by San Fran based group, Thee Oh Sees. Time and time again I have missed them when they've come into town. The closest I've got to them live was their set on the Black Stage during Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011, which I was bartending right next to. But hearing them and actually watching them is two entirely different things. I did however check frontman John Dwyer in at artist check-in for SXSW 2012, which was pretty damn rad.
We arrived a little late, about halfway through Ty Segall's set, who I have seen twice before at the Mohawk Austin. While I was disappointed to miss most of my older favorites, we did get there in time to hear several of the songs off his newest album, Slaughterhouse, including "I Bought My Eyes" and "Muscle Man." The audience was raging; lots of moshing and crowd surfing. Perhaps one of the most entertaining moments of the night was an attempt by a female fan to jump on stage and give Ty a big sweaty kiss. He ducked away and shooed her off stage, crushing the poor girl's dream of a brush with a hit musician.
Thee Oh Sees entered the stage close to midnight and all hell broke loose. Now, La Zona Rosa, while a great large space, is not one of my favorite venues in Austin. Unless you're directly in front of the stage the sight-line is terrible, and the sound can sometimes be questionable as well. But, my friends and I made the conscious effort to get up very near to the front, and the occasional push and shove and sweat bath was totally worth it. For most of the show Dwyer rocked a badass clear, acrylic electric guitar and belted out his signature high and low voice alterations. They performed songs off Help and Warm Slime, as well as a couple off one of my favorites, Castlemania. However most of their performance came off their sixth studio album, Putrifiers II, including the ultra catchy "Lupine Dominus" and the 50s-esque "Goodnight Baby."
For the ending set, pre-encore, Ty Segall Band's kickass chick drummer, Emily Rose Epstein, joined Oh See's drummer Mike Shoun for an all-out drum fest. Garage punk band fanatics joined together to create one giant jumping wave and copious amounts of stage diving began. Afterward their encore was short-lived, but everyone left the venue blown away by the show overall. The only thing that would have topped it off would have been to hear one of my favorite toe-tapping hits, "I Need Seed"; but there's always the next show!
No comments:
Post a Comment