Recap The Thermals at High Noon Saloon

Four studio albums deep into their career, The Thermals still magically walk the line between nerdy confessionals and dirty garage punk without sacrificing a drop of sincerity. Touring behind the recently released Now We Can See, the Portland power trio made a triumphant, if way overdue, stop in Madison on Tuesday night to crank out a lengthy set for a big, eager crowd at the High Noon Saloon. Wasting no time, The Thermals hit the stage and got fists pumping with opening song “Returning To The Fold,” from their 2006 epic The Body, The Blood, The Machine. “But, I still have faith, if I ever had faith / wait for me, wait for me!” shouted lead singer Hutch Harris in his geekishly powerful register while ripping into his guitar.

New drummer Westin Glass hammered away at the drums as though he was running the last mile of a marathon, and the crowd’s energy snowballed with every song. When Glass and bassist Kathy Foster punched their way into another Body track, “A Pillar Of Salt,” the audience jumped out of its shell and began dancing wildly, shouting along with Harris’ every word.

While the threesome squeezed in plenty of numbers from Body and the excellent Now We Can See, they thankfully did not abandon 2004’s Fuckin’ A or (Decider's personal favorite) 2003’s More Parts Per Million. Giant grins illuminated the faces of Harris, Foster, and Glass during the giant clap- and sing-along of “Now We Can See” and the crowd’s oddly energetic reaction to the slowed-down “Test Pattern,” after which Harris laughed and said: “Wow, nice ballad mosh.”

After ripping through a couple of classics—the anti-ironic “No Culture Icons” and the religious commentary of “Here’s Your Future”—the threesome closed their proper set with the anthemic theme-song silliness of “Everything Thermals” as Harris sang with a crooked smile: “The Thermals don’t need drugs to have a good time / The Thermals need drugs just to stay alive.” After Foster gave high-fives to everyone at the front of the stage, the trio walked off, only to return (as loudly demanded by the crowd) with a couple of covers: a surprisingly effective rendition of Nirvana B-side “Sappy,” and The Breeders’ “Saints.”