Monday night found RustedRobot at The Paradise nightclub in Boston, attending a show put on by The Thrills. The Thrills are one of several bands making inroads in the U.S. as part of what seems like an “The Irish Invasion” – Damien Rice, The Frames and now The Thrills, all of whom are starting to make waves in our country. The Thrills recent album, So Much For The City, slowly made its way into heavy rotation in my stereo and now, after seeing the band, will remain in that rotation for a bit.
Clearly influenced by the sounds coming off the west coast of U.S. during the 1960s, The Thrills set out to make a sunny, sandy pop record by moving themselves to San Diego for four months to record the album. The result is a set of songs that make an almost embarrassing amount of references to the California standards – Santa Cruz, Big Sur, Hollywood, etc. One will easily believe upon first hearing this that it’s just another Los Angeles band of merry, stoned surfers. Backed by a rich assortment of instruments including a variety of horns, cello, violin and banjo, the album is a very satisfying, swift tribute to a simpler, inventive time in American music. It’s yet to be determined if The Thrills will continue on this path or if this was just a one-time event to get “the California thing” out of the their system, but one fact seems certain – this is a band that stands far above the seemingly nameless, faceless “garage rock” bands that are infiltrating the music landscape. That’s one nice thing about The Thrills – the 60s west coast influence is clearly there, but the show (and the album) have just enough grit to it that they’re lumped in with the Strokes, etc as one of those “type” bands. An unfair classification for sure, but it’s allowed them to reach a larger audience. A highly recommended album and a fantastic show – keep your eyes peeled….
I did go to this show with every intention of getting some good photographs. However, after snapping off about 5 shots, a tragedy occured – the small door where the batteries are housed slipped open and the batteries spilled out during the show. I wasn’t about to get down on my hands and knees to search for two AA batteries (too many people there), so I just shrugged it off, put the camera in my pocket and enjoyed the hell out of the show. So I give to you an abbreviated Thrills slideshow of just six pictures. Better than nothing. By the way, an amusing sidenote in the first picture of ths set – it was a total accident that the neon sign at the far right says what it says…..
Lastly, will the average internet user even notice this?
Song now playing: Thad Cockrell – “Taking The View”