Thunderbirds Are Now! My Ears Are Shot!

I had marked my calendar months in advance for this show , but I didn't have a ticket for the Thunderbirds Are Now! show tonight at the Knitting Factory.  Sidenote: I was going to interview them also but I'm very behind with interview transcriptions.  I had the feeling the show was in the tap bar, but when I looked it up earlier in the day I saw that they were playing the old office.  The old office?  Maybe all the indie rock kids were at the free Blonde Redhead show.  Considering all the great press they'd been getting I was shocked that they'd be playing the smallest room in the Knit.  After finding out they'd be playing such a small space I put aside the fact that I was dead tired and decided I was going to the show.  In fact I went to the Knit a few hours prior to the show to buy a ticket because I was told it'd sell out soon.  (See next page for videos and photos from show...)

So for $7 I saw a show that brought back memories of my high school days and going to a punk rock venue in CT called Studio 158.  I have great memories of seeing Fifteen and Avail there.  In any case TAN! stepped on stage around 11P and proceeded to rock and spaz out.  I spoke with this girl Erin who I met after the show and she said that at the start of the show, plaster from the ceiling fell on her head.  I believe that was a good sign.  The band played the almost all the songs off Justamustache and ended their set with two new songs.  Although the sound was a bit off to start the show, after some adjustments the sound was fine and the performance was amazing.  These dudes play loud though so come ready.  All of the guys in the band go nuts, but the keyboardist / vocalist Scott Allen goes completely bonkers.  He went into the crowd a few times and did the spastic dance against the crowd.  It was awesome. 

The crowd showed some signs of life and there was some good movement.  I felt pretty old thought as I think there were the kids around me that were not old enough to drink.  It was cool that they were dancing though  In any case, this was the first show in a long time that made me as if I was at the local punk rock venue seeing a band just put on a raw show.  I was so excited I ended up buying their first two albums and a t-shirt.  I turned back the clock about 10 years tonight.  :)

Brooklyn Vegan also has a review of the show in addition to a review of the Mastodon show.  

Live videos from the show below.  Sorry about crappy sound quality.  Also takes a while to load up.  If you want better quality keep an eye out at www.punkcast.com (I saw Jolie who runs punkcast filming the show although he told me he's pretty backed up at the moment) :

Eat This City (10MB)  /   Harpoons of Love (10MB)

Eat This City MP3

Prefix review of Justamustache

Homepage (Streaming Audio)

Myspace page (They jokingly plugged this)