The Thermals, The Shaky Hands and Point Juncture WA

Frank YangRare is the occasion that I head into a show with little knowledge of a band or their output - I’m all about the due diligence for my evening activities, yo - but that was the case when I hit the Horseshoe in October 2007 for the The Thermals’ Toronto debut in support of their superb The Body, The Blood, The Machine and though I went in curious, I came out converted. Put succinctly, they rocked my face off. Their awesomeness was confirmed by their Hot Freaks showcase at SxSW in March and their just-released new record Now We Can See.

So I expected no shortage of righteous fury on Sunday night when the Thermals once again rolled into The Horseshoe for their second-ever Toronto appearance with a couple of fellow Portland acts in tow. The first, Point Juncture WA, seriously impressed. It’s unclear to me whether there actually exists a Point Juncture in the great state of Washington, but if there was and this four-piece’s music were an accurate representation, it’d be a town made up of a noisy/garage-rock residences alongside high-tech electronic industrial districts with a downtown filled with concert halls built on top of jazz clubs, and a population who, despite their disparate influences and interests, all come together to make beautiful pop music. There was no shortage of talent on display - multiple lead vocalists, superb musicianship and deceptively complex song structures - but all of it was in service to their hooky, dreamy pop tunes. And the brought a vibraphone with them on the road for just one part in one song. That’s either dedication or insanity, or probably both. Their new album is Heart To Elk - do investigate.

Middle act The Shaky Hands were somewhat disappointing conventional in comparison. College rock unafraid to let its roots show and with a whiff of jam-bandness about them, they reminded me of Blitzen Trapper but without the genre-hopping creative restlessness. By their set’s end I had come to appreciate them for what they were and not what they weren’t, but wasn’t especially disappointed to see them go. Their new album is Lunglight.

And for The Thermals, I really don’t want to use the word “disappointment” because it sounds overly and unnecessarily harsh, but relative to the two awesome performances they delivered the other two times I’d seen them, this one just paled. They got there and played hard - the sweat soaking Hutch Harris’ shirt by show’s end doesn’t lie - and sounded great, but there wasn’t the sense of glee that I’d basked in at the SxSW show in particular, where both Harris and bassist Kathy Foster were pogoing around the stage and leaping off of amps. Should those sorts of antics be expected nightly? I suppose not, because then it’d just be kind of contrived, but I couldn’t help feeling let down that they didn’t seem to be feeling it this night. But even a Thermals show running not quite full tilt is still a rock show and then some, and from the intensity and enthusiasm of the crowd, it was obvious my feelings were very much in the minority. Covering all albums in their repertoire, they barrelled through almost twenty songs in an hour and did it with aplomb and intensity. If the only complaint I can register is that Harris didn’t leap off of any equipment, then I should probably still file this one under the “W” column.

Photos: The Thermals, The Shaky Hands, Point Juncture, WA @ The Horseshoe - May 3, 2009
MP3: The Thermals - “Now We Can See”
MP3: The Thermals - “No Culture Icons”
MP3: The Shaky Hands - “We Are Young”
MP3: Point Juncture WA - “Sioux Arrow”

- Frank Yang