Thee Oh Sees played Mercury Lounge & the Bell House (pics)

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Posted in music | pictures | tour dates on April 8, 2009

Thee Oh Sees played Mercury Lounge & the Bell House (pics)

photos by Tim Griffin, words by Andrew Frisicano

Thee Oh Sees

Thee Oh Sees played two NYC shows over the weekend (both on the stage). Tim was at the band's Saturday, April 4th Bell House show with Excepter, ~~Catatonic Youth~~ Sightings, and Pink Skull. That gig was a launch party for FreeMusicArchive.org.

Then, Thee Oh Sees played a Sunday night (4/5) Mercury Lounge show with Skeletons, Child Abuse, and Zs. I caught that performance, which showcased John Dwyer & Co.'s reverbed out garage rock sound in a set of short, to-the-point songs. The psychedelic-punk vibe worked for the band who seemed to thrive on an element of danger - Dwyer frequently jammed the mic into his mouth squeaking lead-lines in a kind of manic breathing/barking gesture. The band plays without a bass guitar (they were the third band of the night to do so) which gave their sound a weightless, centered quality that could've been found just as easily on the tiny speakers of a portable turntable or an FM radio. Songs started with only a quick count off by singer/guitarist Dwyer, who traded barely-intelligible melodic fragments with co-singer Brigid Dawson over the steady, held-back drums of Mike Shoun. Other guitarist Petey Dammit layed a simple, hypnotic foundation for the reverberating sounds on stage. The band compressed that into a concise set, played one encore, and headed home to San Francisco.

Thee Oh Sees' newest record, Help, just came out on In the Red Records. The band has a set of West Coast dates planned.

All Bell House photos and tour dates below...

Thee Oh Sees

Thee Oh Sees - 2009 Tour Dates
Apr 14 - annies social club sf, California
Apr 29 - el ricon sf, California
May 1 - de young museum sf, California
May 4 - da knockout sf, California
May 8 - oberlin college oberlin college, Ohio
May 15 - amnesia sf, California
Jun 11 - the casbah san diego, California
Jun 11 - the casbah san diego, California
Jun 12 - tba la, California
Jun 13 - thee independent sf, California

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Tags: Mercury Lounge, The Bell House, Thee Oh Sees

Posted on April 8, 2009 10:28 AM

Comments (17)

sightings played, not catatonic youth. and they killed it!

thee oh sees also played glasslands after the bell house gig...anyone go to that? I bailed...

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 10:40 AM

hipsters

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 10:54 AM

The set at The Mercury Lounge was only 35 minutes long - a pity, because it was a great show - just all too brief.

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 11:03 AM

Catatonic Youth are a bunch of babies

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 11:09 AM

Something was off with the Mercury Lounge show, they definitely cut it short. Don't think they were using most of their own equipment. Dwyer seemed unhappy with the sound. Was without his 12-string, which was unusual.

Also, apparently they played Glasslands late after Bell House. Wish I'd known.

Posted by bill p | April 8, 2009 11:28 AM

bankers

Posted by Brit Brit | April 8, 2009 11:54 AM

they went on at about 2am at glasslands. the show was late night sloppy & short.

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 12:11 PM

they were great at that bell house show - loud as fuck - in fact, that whole show was loud as fuck. Sightings and Excepter both were turned up to a stupidly loud level - was the soundguy hard of hearing?

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 12:20 PM

THEE OH SEES ARE THE BEST BAND IN THE WORLD!

THEY RIP IT EVERYWHERE THEY GO!

Posted by burgers | April 8, 2009 12:26 PM

john dwyer has smelly farts though

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 1:04 PM

fyi - the record is NOT actually out yet. the street date is 4/28, the band has just been selling copies on the road.

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 1:31 PM

when are these guys going to play a show at a venue people actually want to go to?

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 1:35 PM

They were AWESOME at Glasslands. Felt like seeing them play in Sf, sloppy audience dancing around, going crazy

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 2:30 PM

i spoke with mike, the drummer, at the mercury show, he did say that they weren't using their own instruments which made their sets short at glassland, because of technical issues. really wish the show at mercury was longer. but they put on a killer show. they're all nice lads. def will see them around again. the show at the bell house was good too.

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 5:06 PM

sigh they better come around soon i missed both shows :/

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 6:01 PM

nice Nudies

Posted by Anonymous | April 8, 2009 10:12 PM

I took pictures at the Bell House show, look at em:

http://severedheads.tumblr.com/post/101575743/the-oh-sees-at-the-bell-house-april-4-2009

Posted by Anonymous | April 29, 2009 6:17 PM