The Thermals
300 St Clare
Knuckleheads
Dirty LowSunday, July 2 @ The Green Square Hotel, Sydney
The surprise of the night was Knucklehead. When I don't already know all of the bands on the bill, I do try to catch at least a new one when I can in the hope of stumbling onto something good. More often than not it seems I'm out of luck, but once in a while catching a band like Knucklehead provides a pleasant surprise that makes it all worthwhile.
Prior to the show, I didn't know anything about the band except that Al Creed (from the Panadolls/New Christs) had recently joined. This was apparently the first gig with this line up and what a way to start! Fast tempo, dual guitar based rock like speeding through a deserted industrial estate at night in a stolen V-8. Let's hope that the future holds plenty of open road for these guys.
But I was really there to catch the Thermals. When I first saw them at the Britannia Hotel in early October of last year, it was only their first or second show and while they were clearly good musicians, their performance that night had more rough edges than a woodwork class at a school for epileptics. Still, there were occasional flashes of brilliance when everything came together and made it clear that they had the potential to be a really convincing act if they ever got focused. Every gig since then has shown a noticeable, in some cases dramatic, improvement over the gig that preceded it.
That first gig I saw was about nine months ago, so the gestation period is now over and I'm pleased to be able to report they've fulfilled that early promise and given birth to raucous, relentless rockin' band. Consisting of just Nik Rieth (pictured) on drums plus two guitarists, but no bass player (and even after nine months I still haven't found out who those two guitarists are, though they clearly deserve to be well known), their sound acknowledges all the right influences, with maximum energy and some dynamic guitar work, fortunately free of self-indulgent solos, all nailed down by a beat that is rock solid (think Gibraltar), just as you would expect from any band anchored by Nik Rieth.
No wonder this band always attracts a good crowd. Nik also has a significant personal following, some of whom like to throw bras and panties onto the stage (fortunately for him they're mostly women). While this may well be the ultimate accolade, it does slow the show down, since he usually insists on stopping so he can put them on his head...
The Dirty Low were billed in Drum Media as "Neil Young on bad acid" and I won't argue with that. They'll be supporting the Thermals again at the Iron Duke on Friday the 21st of July.
1/2
