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Thee Oh Sees, The Blind Shake & OBN IIIs played Irving Plaza (pics) and 285 Kent (audio, setlist)

photos by Ebru Yildiz; words by Bill Pearis

Thee Oh Sees / The Blind Shake / OBN IIIs @ Irving Plaza 10/29/2013
Thee Oh Sees
The Blind Shakes
OBN IIIs

Thee Oh Sees were in NYC this week as part of their killer tour with equally awesome The Blind Shake and OBN IIIs, playing two shows: 285 Kent on Sunday (11/27) and Irving Plaza on Tuesday (11/29). Pictures from Irving Plaza are in this post.

I was at 285 Kent and I think it was easily one of the best shows I’ve seen this year. Maybe it was the death of Lou Reed, who John Dwyer dedicated their set to (and whose music was played between sets), and the weird energy that brought, and the location certainly was condusive, but Thee Oh Sees were absolutely on fire Sunday night. They played for about an hour (pretty long for them) and it felt like ten minutes. NYC Taper was there are got a great recording of their set. You can stream “Block of Ice” below and download the whole shebang over at his site.

It helped that two other great live bands primed the audience. With their big rock riffs and Orville Bateman Neeley III’s bellowing vocals, Austin’s OBN IIIs (who opened the night) are kind of like a garagey version of The Cult (or Danzig?) but minus the goth overtones. Orville, like he usually does, spent much of their set in the crowd messing with people, which is absolutely part of the fun.

Minneapolis’ The Blind Shake seemed a little less schticky this time — they’ve toned down the matching outfits a bit — and just pounded out their animal beat protopunk as an extremely tight unit. After seeing them play to half-filled rooms, it was great to see them in a packed house.

A friend of mine went to the Irving Plaza show and said Thee Oh Sees were great there too, but “not loud enough.” Did you catch them at Irving and do you agree? More pictures from all three bands at Irving Plaza, plus the 285 Kent Oh Sees setlist and song stream, below…

OBN IIIs

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The Blind Shake

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SETLIST: Thee Oh Sees @ 285 Kent, 10/27/2013
I Come From The Mountain
Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster
Block of Ice
Contraption – Soul Desert
The Dream
Tidal Wave
Tunnel Time
What’s Over There
Strawberries 1 and 2
Meat Step Lively
No Spell
Dead Energy
Minotaur
Lupine Dominus

ENCORE
Carrion Crawler