Live Recap: Thee Oh Sees and The Fresh and Onlys

Lots of shows come through our fair city of Lawrence – most are good, some are bad, and a select few are so completely amazing they go straight to the concert spank bank to be remembered forevermore.  Last Wednesday night, when The Fresh & Onlys came to town along with Thee Oh Sees for instance, that show will be safely tucked away, somewhere between that one Gogogo Airheart show at the Replay and the time the Dirtbombs played the Bottleneck. A hot, sticky wad of rock and roll goodness, even ‘ye old 9 to 5′ers were out in full force, already discussing several completely believable excuses for Thursday morning’s call-in.

The musical orgy opened with some local flavor from Bandit Teeth and Ad Astra Arkestra – the latter of whom positively filled every inch of stage with band members making joyous sounds on a dazzling display of instruments. The opening acts did their job with aplomb befitting their usual praise, and the crowd was well warmed up and ready for a little grinding and heavy aural petting by the very willing lads of The Fresh & Onlys. This band came on stage and let it rip all over the delighted, hungry faces of the audience, playing tune after tune in such rapid succession the lead singer had nary a chance to remove his sunglasses until the show was over. The Fresh & Only’s live show was every bit as raw and glorious as their new CD Grey-Eyed Girls and hopes were flying just as high for Thee Oh Sees.

Shunning the Jackpot stage, Thee Oh Sees instead set up their instruments on the floor, letting folks surround them on all sides and inviting up close and personal interaction between band and crowd throughout the set. There’s really nothing like letting it all go while watching somebody else let it all go on an instrument performing inches away. And perform Thee Oh Sees did – positively ripping through songs with heat and heavy riffs to spare, leaving the crowd panting, glowing and ready to keep going – don’t stop -  even as the lights went down and the last notes rang from the instruments.

It was just how you always remembered shows being, it was just how shows should always be, this show was one to remember.