the thermals rock it in seattle,no surprise their

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Laura Musselman
​Eric's closing comment on his Weezer post--"I might like watching new Thermals more than I like watching old Weezer. Who'da thunk it?"--reminded me that I'd be remiss not to rave a little bit about how awesome the Thermals were opening the Weezer show on Friday night. They were peppy, alive, and clearly stoked to be playing--"We are thrilled to be opening for Weezer!" Hutch Harris announced at the beginning of their set. "Seriously, a dream come true!" That may be so (Harris also said that their band wouldn't exist without Weezer's "Blue Album" and Pinkerton), but the Thermals really did Weezer a service by opening with such a lively, rocking set.

My favorite Thermals album is still 2006's The Body, the Blood, the Machine, and the trio closed a rousing rendition of that album's "Here's Your Future," while my favorite moment of their set was when Harris got down on his knees in front of the badass Kathy Foster to riff the guitar part of "Returning to the Fold." All three instruments sounded bright and loud and had no trouble filling the entire theater, and I can't really say enough how much I love Westin Glass as the Thermals' drummer--he sings along, he stands up from his stool because he gets so excited and has to clap along with the audience--he loves being in this band, and his energy always brings a smile to my face. And it matches the Thermals' aura to a T--this band doesn't wind it down until the very last note has been played.

The Thermals gained a lot of new fans from opening that show, too. A sampling of some of the comments that showed up on their Facebook page afterwards:

"I hadn't heard of you guys till i saw the Weezer show in Seattle. You guys were phenomenal. A surprisingly passionate performance from an opening act. So I went and bought an album of your's yesterday. It was first rate, I can't believe I didn't know you guys before."

"You killed it in Seattle on Saturday night. Just snagged two of your records because of the impressive set."

"You guys were crazy last night, you should be doing main act concerts!"

"You guys were so great last night! Wish u could of played longer!!!"

"OMG UR SHOW LAST NIGHT WAS AMAZING :P"

OMG. Amazing job, Thermals.