As I walked into a sold out Luminaire, the first thing that hit me was the heat. It was insanely hot standing in that tiny room on the eve of what had been one of the most swelteringly humid days in London since last summer. The air was heavy and salty and Thee Oh Sees were just tuning up to the sound of anticipatory cheers and whistles from the crowd. Singer and mastermind John Dwyer greets the crowd with “It is HOT in here” before launching the band into 50 minutes of frantic and totally fuzzed out garage/psych shredders that felt right at home being played amongst the haze of thick heat blanketing an ever more uncomfortable audience.
Consisting of only 2 guitars, a minimal drum kit and a backing singer, The Oh Sees create a tremendous sound that doesn’t sound like it should be coming from so few instruments. Their pounding basslines (played on a guitar) have an almost hypnotic effect when twinned with the primal beats being smashed out of the drums. Then theres Dwyer’s crazed guitar playing, covered in vintage echo and fuzz it just sonically batters everyone within earshot as heard when the band kicked into ‘Enemy Destruct’ from their 2009 album Help, the crowd went wild and the raw power of the band was put on full show for everyone standing round the edges to see. The opening chords of ‘I Was Denied’ propelled the first few rows of true fans into a mass pogo and there was even a stage diver at one point…not usual fare for shows at The Luminaire but then that’s the true spirit of Thee Oh Sees, their music inspires energy.
Half an hour of unhinged thrashing later and we are treated to a rendition of ‘Warm Slime’, the 13 minute title track of their newest album. By this time the band were drenched in sweat and the 10 minute instrumental jam section, punctuated by the odd shrill yelp down the microphone did begin to grate a little, although only due to the ovenlike conditions in the crowd.
Thee Oh Sees played like their lives depended on it, the energy was fantastic throughout and is rarely seen at small gigs around London, especially with trendy US bands the majority of the crowd have never seen before. The band tore through their set in true garage rock fashion not letting the pace drop for a moment, no slow songs got played here despite the fact they have many on offer. Theres something about this band, their hearts are in the right place and they do it for the love, their prolific album-every-six-months release schedule shows this and makes them a real fans band that you can really ‘get into’ and collect their limited records etc etc. Although their sound is somewhat recycled from the ’60’s garage scene it really doesn’t matter as they can put on a great show playing great songs and to be honest, what more could you ask for?
Thee Oh Sees
June 5, 2010
As I walk into a sold out show at The Luminaire, the first thing that hits me is the heat. Standing in that tiny room on the eve of what has been one of the most swelteringly humid days in London since last summer, the air is heavy and salty as Thee Oh Sees are tuning up to the sound of anticipatory cheers and whistles from the crowd. Singer and mastermind John Dwyer greets the crowd with “It is hot in here” before launching the band into 50 minutes of frantic and totally fuzzed out garage/psych shredders that feels right at home being played amongst the haze of thick heat blanketing an ever more uncomfortable audience.
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