This is what control looks like: a lanky, pilule shaggy-haired teenager howling in the middle of a Thee Oh Sees pit, health trying to give every limb autonomy as his pupils dilate faster than his face can fit.
A middle aged couple, doctor both with waist-length dreadlocks bobbing seconds after their heads move, toying with the edge of the pit as their gray-haired friend rushes in with as much vitality as the decades-younger fans by her side.
Thee Oh Sees’ two drummers, both Shining twins-esque in their mirrored playing, slightly deviating from one another to play interlocking fills before regrouping to absolutely bash the shit out of their kits in unison.
John Dwyer doing his John Dwyer yelp roughly every other minute.
The crowd barely containing itself from splitting its collective shins open on the low stage as the 200-cap room seemingly lurched to “Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster”.
I reiterate: this is control. It might not be any individual or organized group’s idea of control (although after the last couple weeks in politics, a clear definition of “control” is tenuous at best), but after a decade plus of prolifically churning out psychedelic noise in dangerously small spaces, Thee Oh Sees have managed to zero in on how to grip the reins of their demolition derby.
Without question or argument, the one holding those reins is John Dwyer. Beyond the prolific output (Thee Oh Sees’ second album this year and 18th overall comes out today) and his dual role as the band’s tour manager, Dwyer is a sort of anti-rockstar’s rockstar, gleefully opting to play smaller art spaces over bigger stages despite the band’s ability to sell out pretty much wherever at this point.
With deep allegiances to both the East and West Coast (Dwyer was born and raised in Providence), Thee Oh Sees had the rare position on Tuesday to make even a sorta-kinda-hometown show feel as glorified as any of their fabled Northern California shows. The spread of openers felt like a beautifully disjointed ode to Thee Oh Sees’ ability to avoid a concrete sound over the years; Providence troublemakers Gymshorts inexplicably played their ten-second blast “Bed(stuy)” five times within a twenty minute set, Holy Wave stretched out their Austin-based psychedelia into jam territory, and Straight Arrows brought chipper Australian accents to a West Coast surf punk sound.
Before Strai
ght Arrows had even fully left the stage, trails of sage began wafting around the room. Without anyone recognizing it was Dwyer passing through the crowd, he was already piling up his mountain of speakers and amps, the sage burning amongst his stacks as brightly as the illegal cigarette dangling from his mouth. Sure, Thee Oh Sees would go on minutes later and lead off a riff-heavy set with “I Come From The Mountain”, but the therapeutic entrance was indicative of Thee Oh Sees’ hold on the chaos. The dual drummers’ militant shadowing of one another on newer cuts like “Gelatinous Cube” and “Dead Man’s Gun” was more a hypnotic sight to behold rather than hear (although yeah, they were fuckin’ good and loud).
Aside from slow burner “Sticky Hulks” and parts of the 15-minute version of “Contraption” that closed the show, the band’s set was built for unrelenting speed and pogoing, but nothing felt like it was careening out of control. In potentially corny reference to the sage, Thee Oh Sees’ set also smoldered with a meditative glow, yet everyone was fully aware that this is a band propelled by fire.
For photos, check out our slideshow below.
