Pleb Pool

Last Sunday I saw Thee Oh Sees.

This is an introduction to Thee Oh Sees. Here is an introduction to their live experience.

Frenetic is likely the word you’re looking for. Wikipedia will concur. Whilst usually occupying a stance of sobriety when it comes to my concert experience I generally favour a drastically, dangerously higher intake of alcohol for bands such as Thee Oh Sees. From that live video you can probably guess why. I can usually enjoy any gig equally from both angles. In this case though, there’s a large drunken pit of debased dancing that just begs you for your participation; usually directly through an elbow to the face and a beer down your shirt.

That sounds a lot more aggressive than the actual nature of the mosh happens to be. The elbow isn’t intentional. Unlike your festival going experience with the common testosterone ‘bro’ your crowd at one of these gigs is largely good natured. Take a tumble and expect to be picked up. Get hit and you’ll likely receive an apology. You will be shoved but think of it like being pushed down the bumpiest (super fun happy) waterslide of your life, complete with sweat instead of water.

Suffice to say the audience on Sunday did not disappoint, nor did Thee Oh Sees. The presence of two drummers and Dwyer’s frenzied playing got the audience thrashing after two songs of worrying placidity. The blood lighting probably helped. From there things got frenzied. My friend ended up slightly concussed after a stage dive and subsequently spent the latter half of the night vomiting in a toilet. He considers this a success. That should be an indication of what a night like this should entail: Sweaty, intoxicated, trashy. John Dwyer and friends made sure this was the case. 

On a side note the girl with the record head and the lovely floral dress is my good friend Wendy who lives over at her Panache blog. She has amazing taste in pretty much everything so you’d do well to check it out.