The Thermals are a special band. A band that realizes their niche and keeps at it. John and I both love the new album and headed down the Bluebird on a nice Saturday night. Things were off to a good start when I found a parking spot directly across the street. We missed the first band. The Builders And The Butchers were the first band we saw. At first I thought they might be pretty good and it seemed like they had quite a few people there to see them. Instead after a few songs John and I were both over it. I don’t even know what you would call their style of music. Some type of loud folk music that had us looking at our phones to see how much longer they would play. I’ll give them credit for entertaining drummers though. Yes, plural.

The Thermals came out and went right into two great fuzzy lofi songs off the new album quickly making us forget about that previous band. They went on to play several songs from their latest album, a lot from Blood Body and a good mix of the rest. The songs were all played loud and fast. The band was as tight as I’ve ever seen. This is the first time I’ve seen the current drummer and well, he’s hilarious. At one point he stage dived into the crowd. I’m sure some hipsters frowned on him showing his excitement, but for me it’s part of the nerdy attraction of The Thermals. They are good people, play simple music well and have fun on stage. It’s awesome and so was their set.

The Mighty LZA and I have been married 11 years now.  What better way to celebrate our anniversary then to go out for dinner in Denver then go see the Thermals?  Seriously, the Thermals!  One of our favorite bands and one of the funnest bands to see live.  I accidently called Kathy ‘Karen’ and felt like a total idiot.  Luckily she’s super nice and didn’t beat me up.  There’s a great story behind this photo, but I can’t tell it yet.Chad and Chris’s art school buddies Earl and Kit were there.  Kit got kicked out for smoking at the start of the Thermals set.  Ha ha don’t you know smoking sucks!  Luckily he pulled off being a roadie for the middle band and got back in.Greg Harbour’s twin was there.  I’m talking Greg from a few years ago before he started dieing his hair.You don’t see shades on the back of a head in hipster bingo.The first band was Point Juncture, WA.  They were pretty good.  A bit too mellow at times for me, but the rockin’ stuff was really good.  The next band was Shaky Hands.  They were from Portland too.  They were boring and unoriginal.The Thermals finally played to a very enthusiastic crowd.  People were going nuts and everyone was smiling and having a blast.  It was seriously some of the most hyped on a band I’ve seen a crowd in a long time.  The setlist was a mixture of new and old, heavy on the new.  I wanted to hear the new stuff so this was perfect.They opened with ‘Returning To The Fold’ then went into ‘I Let It Go’.  After that I’m not so sure, but here’s a list of what I think I remember which is NOT in order.Returning To The FoldI Let It GoIt’s TriviaNo Culture IconsA Passing Feeling Back To GreyHow We KnowSappy (Nirvana cover)Here’s Your FuturePillar Of SaltTest PatternSt Rosa & The SwallowsWe Were SickNow We Can SeeI Called Out Your NameWhen I Was AfraidHow We FadeYou Dissolve Encore was:I Hold The SoundEverything Thermals I might be missing one or two or messed it up.  Either way that’s close enough.  All of the new stuff sounded super good.  The crowd completely freaked out to Here’s Your Future.   The ground up front at the Marquis shakes when people get jumping and at times it felt like I was on a trampoline.  Awesome.  I completely loved every song, but my stand out favorites were “How We Fade”, “When I Was Afraid”, “I Called Out Your Name”, “Test Pattern” (never heard it played before), “St Rosa & The Swallows”, “Here’s Your Future”, “Pillar of Salt” (yes pretty much the whole set) and of course “Sappy” was an awesome surprise.  I think they played “I Let It Go” too early in the set because it’s probably my favorite song on the new album and the sound wasn’t dialed in yet.  Oh well though, excellent excellent show.  I like that they don’t have the extra guitarist anymore and I think Hutch gave his best delivery I’ve seen.  Kathy was on point once again driving the bass the way she does.  They are so fun live!  Everything Thermals!