Ack Phhht!

Showing up to 924 Gilman for the first time in twelve years or so was kind of a trip.  It sounded like I had a lot of company, though — several people around me in the crowd were saying things along the same lines, drawn back to see Thorns Of Life, the new band featuring Blake Schwarzenbach (Jawbreaker, Jets To Brazil) and Aaron Cometbus (Crimpshrine, Fifteen).

Figuring that the show would likely be crowded, we showed up about 45 minutes before doors.  Good thing — the line was already long, and by the time the doors opened it stretched around the corner.  We waited outside for about an hour before getting in, in time to see Off With Their Heads, a rocking punk band, and the Re-Volts, who were just alright.  The room wasn’t too crowded for either band, but as soon as the Re-Volts got off the stage, people crushed in — it was like a flash-flood — and that was pretty much it for moving until ToL finished their set.

How were they?  Pretty good!  Not drop-dead awesome like Jawbreaker was in their prime, but far better than the last couple lackluster Jets To Brazil shows I saw.  They scared the crap out of me with their first song, an inane ditty about losing your virginity (didn’t Paul Westerberg already write this song?), but after that it was pretty much all punk rock.  I came to the show not really sure what to expect (after that first batch of ToL YouTube videos back in November, I made a point of not watching any more, so that I could see the band live without too many preconceptions), but what they ended up sounding like to me was Jawbreaker covering Jets To Brazil — they had the pummeling rhythm section and straight-ahead attack of Jawbreaker, but the broader stylistic diversity that Blake introduced into his songwriting with JTB.

It was pretty clear that this was a new band who were still getting used to playing together.  Their playing was a bit sloppy and out of sync at times, and the songs sometimes felt like rough drafts, still in need of tightening up here and there, with the lyrics in particular suffering from too-dense verbiage in places.  But overall, they rocked, and there was a really positive vibe to the proceedings.  Watching Blake spazz out during the guitar parts brought back a lot of memories, and his between-song banter was much more relaxed and funny than the last few times I saw JTB (to say nothing of his cringe-worthy banter on the posthumous Jawbreaker live album, Live 4/30/96).  Hopefully, the band will stick around for a while and I’ll have some more chances to see them play.