The Thermals

Two things about the Thermals: The Portland, Oregon indie-punk band made its first album, 2003’s More Parts Per Million, for approximately six dollars (they recorded it at home on six one-dollar cassettes) and it was released virtually as-is by Sub Pop; and prior to forming the group, Thermals principals Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster (once boyfriend-girlfriend but not for a very, very long time now) made quirky, semi-acoustic folk-pop under the moniker Hutch and Kathy. The first fact is interesting because even as the Thermals have grown and evolved over four albums — with more money, time, studio access, and ideas at their disposal – their music still retains the raw, desperate, wholly genuine spirit of a couple kids doing things on the way cheap in their bedroom just for the absolute love of it. The second fact explains how the Thermals – a power-trio that’s currently on its fourth drummer — can rage like the punkiest of the punks, with barbed-wire guitars and pummeling rhythms and venomous lyrics about political vampires, cultural wastes, and imagined end-times, and still display a proud pop heart in its classic, winning melodies and strangely hopeful-sounding vocals. It’s pop-punk less like Green Day and more like Husker Du, and their latest – the loud, passionate, and obscenely catchy Now We Can See (recorded for their new label, Kill Rock Stars) just may be their greatest.

Tue., May 26, 8 p.m., 2009