The Thermals played the newly renovated Echo Plex, aka Ex_Plex, to what looked to be a near sold out crowd. Jeremiah and I arrived about 20 minutes after 10pm and were surprised to find that the band had gone on at 10. What kind of show with 2 opening bands on a Friday night has the headliner go on at 10?!? The show was originally scheduled for the Echo, but we were alarmed when we got there to discover that it had been moved to the Echo Plex., an 18 and over venue, hence the early set times. The bouncer at the door said that the Thermals were slated to go on at 9:30pm, but they held them off until 10pm.
For the portion of the show we did catch, the Thermals were entertaining. By the time we got there the Echo Plex was a hotbox because everyone was bopping around in the front, and probably because the venue is essentially in a basement with lackluster AC. The Thermals brand of poppy, Ted Leoesque, post-punk, rock was a hit with what looked to be a younger crowd of mostly college kids, including a fair share of seemingly obvious frat boys.
The Thermals lead singer, Hutch Harris, looks like his voice, which is always refreshing for me to see. Some people just don’t look like what they sound like, but he does, slightly nerd chic. The rest of the band seems to be a compliment to Harris’ musings. All in all, for the portion of the show we caught, the Thermals seem to deliver what the crowd wants, good clean musical fun.
