The Thermals/Shaky Hands, Rhythm Room, Phoenix

Two of Portland's fine rock bands (both on Kill Rock Stars), The Thermals and Shaky Hands, powered up the crowd Tuesday night at Rhythm Room in Phoenix. A big crowd packed the room and warmly welcomed both bands, who are nearing the end of this leg of their respective tours.

The Thermals

(photo by Dfactor)

The Shaky Hands were a great opening band, mixing up rhythms, textures, tempos and energy in equal doses, and rocking up their songs more than the recorded versions would suggest. The dynamics were more alive in their set than in the Thermals' set. Drummer Nicholas Delffs seemed to be the center of the band's focus last night, as they seemed to played more inwardly to each other than to the crowd. Good stuff all around - see more pics at my Flickr page.

The Shaky Hands


The Thermals kept the crowd waiting and anticipating. Then their bearded 'roadie' (is he also in a band? He looked really familiar...) came out with big bath-type towels for the band to soak up the sweat many minutes later, and the rockin' began. The Thermals kicked out their first 3-4 songs fast 'n loud (setlist anyone?). Singer-guitarist Hutch Harris is an intense young guy - he loves his guitar rockin' but he seemed somewhat distracted last night. Maybe it was just the long tour and nerves were somewhat frayed, but after the solid opening few songs, both Hutch and bassist Kathy Foster seemed to disconnect on songs and parts.

The Thermals


I thought most of the middle of the set, while still rockin', seemed somewhat routine and perfunctory. Except for I Can't Let Go, which I really liked as a sort of defiant declaration. And yet....the big sing-a-long "Now We Can See" seemed somewhat flat (Video below)

But the band found a third wind for the last couple of songs, and finished the set strong to the mighty applause of the Phoenix crowd, which earned an encore. While singer Harris zipped right out the back door to the bus, bassist Foster and drummer Westin Glass ('happiest drummer ever!') both hi-fived the crowd up front before departing the stage. All in all, great rock 'n roll night. I wish I knew more of the band's songs. From their Twitter site, The Thermals seemed to dig the crowd's enthusiasm, (plus they had swell late night hotel hijinks), so maybe everything above in this piece is overrated.

The Thermals Live - Now We Can See (bass heavy, sorry)


(Note to Rhythm Room sound/lights - Does your crew adjust the lights for individual bands? Because of the low hanging stage ceiling, the lights are low,near the front of the stage, so they seemed aimed at the back of the stage, resulting in a massively well-lit .....drummer. But both lead singers in each band last night sang in the shadows, because apparently no one coordinated the lights to fit where the microphones were placed. Pretty lousy viewing. See video above for proof.