Review: Thee Oh Sees, SWX

The Blind Shake had managed to misplace their drummer prior to the tour, a mixture of confusing comments came from the stage explaining the situation but leaving the crowd none the wiser and the band reduced to brothers Jim & Mike Blaha. Brother Jim took the place of the absent drummer pounding out a primal beat whilst sat at a bass drum and playing guitar whilst brother Mike was free to roam the stage, guitar in hand. The band are purveyors of music for “an extra-terrestrial backyard surf party” and that certainly tells some of the story, but not all of it by any means. Over eight or so songs the brothers conjured up a fuck off big guitar maelstrom that was certainly extra-terrestrial (full of space rock low end riffs from brother Jim supplemented by laser squeals & distorted Telstar solos from brother Mike) and yes there was a massive Dick Dale from hell surf vibe to the solos too but…

…but there was so much more. Between the two of them the brothers conjured up an expansive range of tones, effects & sounds all within the confines of snappy, pacey tunes; their playing covered all the expected traditional rock sounds but were augmented with unexpected Arabic twists; solos that almost sounded like Cossack dances and frantic playing that never descended into thrashing. Brother Mike could barely contain the music flowing from his instrument, as the set progressed he became possessed by the riffs and solos, on one foot, kicking out and spinning like an ungainly whirling dervish, slinging the  guitar around to wring every last noise out of the thing – almost at war with his axe. Brother Jim could only look on (with a touch of envy perhaps, unable to ride the riffs whilst sat pounding out the beat) as he took the lead vocal and anchored the tunes with bass-like rhythm guitar and decorated them with the odd solo.

This was an exciting set, the soundtrack to Bladerunner set in a Sergio Leone spaghetti western; an exhilarating set just this side of cacophony and a set that was exceedingly well received by the crowd. The only caveat being the tunes themselves: whilst they thrilled there was a distinct lack of a memorable chorus or hook – this wall of noise took no prisoners. But what the hell, there was no earworm to take away but there was the feeling of having witnessed a genuinely exciting and innovative guitar band – we can leave the hooks & choruses to the latest flavour of the month skinny jeaned lank haired mob come to “save guitar music” (© the Fashion police).

Thee Oh Sees spent a considerable amount of time getting the onstage sound right (“Paul’s fault” apparently) even to the extent that there was a whole two minute instrumental before they were satisfied. But not truly satisfied as one or another band member spent the entire gig signalling the desk for changes to this, that and the other. The set itself started with precisely no fanfare, exploding into life for an intense, relentless set of thrilling tunes driven by a reckless disregard for genre conventions. Heavy, psychedelic, punky slivers of pop, all delivered with gonzo relish and played like the world was ending.

Powering the whole shebang were Dan Rincon and Paul Quattrone, their drums pushed up to the front and edge of the stage and to be frank they were mesmerising. There’s something about watching two drummers in perfect sync, driving a rock band at breakneck pace, controlling the tempo for slower numbers and finding endless energy in the extended numbers: Thee Oh Sees covered it all – hardcore paced Ramones length tunes to expansive prog length epics and somehow managed to keep each short tune interesting rather than mindless, and the epics never bored but rather thrilled from start to finish. Whilst the pair kept the groove and belted out the beat in perfect sync there were moments when each broke from the synchronicity for contrasting yet complimentary fancy stuff (technical term) for added satisfaction.

Main man John Dwyer led from the front: whilst dressed in shorts and sporting a Gibson SG his black & red striped shirt made him more Dennis the Menace than Angus Young albeit with a Brideshead floppy fringe. His guitar work was enthralling throughout, heavy yet never ponderous; quicksilver solos & epic riffs; finger tapping & conjuring all manner of alien sounds from the instrument without resorting to self-indulgent cliché. His guitar was up practically under his chin and not content just to play the thing he was wont to machine gun the rest of the band with it and at times stab away into the air like a rifleman at Ypres. For all the tweaking of the sound, the vocals never quite reached optimum clarity and his on stage pronouncements were murky at best apart from one moment of lucidity for a heartfelt acknowledgment of the suffering witnessed in that London the previous night – the band were in town at the same time as the London Bridge attack.

Tim Hellman was a solid presence through his bass locked in with the drummers and always with something intriguing to play during Dwyer’s solos and when he wrangled various noises from his audio generator joystick thingy (technical term). Dwyer conjured up all manner of sounds with his less than conventional kit, at one stage seeming to conjure up the sound you’d get if a saxophonist had duetted with an Orca. The kit was seemingly temperamental requiring constant between song attention and prior to one tune said audio generator joystick thingy created horrendous feedback, the root cause of which turned out to be Dwyer receiving a call on his mobile, plugged in to the keyboard rig. This just one of many moments of levity as Dwyer bantered with both crowd and band.

The packed room had kicked off from the very first number, a mass pogo frenzy overcame the crowd, supplemented with what can only be described as loon dancing and each number greeted with rapture as the crowd wrung every last drop of excitement from the music. No encore, but no disappointment the band gave it their all and the crowd were more than satisfied. And this had been a thoroughly satisfying set, proof that complex music can excite a dance frenzy, proof that guitar based music can still be innovative and proof that you should always set you mobile to call divert when you plug it in to your audio generator joystick thingy.

Thee Oh Sees SWX, 4th June 2017