The Thrills: charming students with epochal affection

Even in a place like the University Of London Union hall where student fashion is – anything you grab, The Thrills manage to look out of place. They might have discarded the Oxfam-chic of recent yore but the bassist’s cowboy shirt was something… well, puzzling. Singer Conor Deasy was besuited with a white shirt that, although I couldn’t see his footwear (Chuck Taylor’s Cons perhaps?), made him look like he was shopping in The Hives’ favoured shop.

Coming on to the strains of Michael ‘Controversy’ Jackson’s ‘Billy Jean’, made us wonder whether we were at a wrong gig and, for a moment, it felt like Backstreet Boys could be walking on. Temporary paranoia aside, it was the freshfaced Dubliners with their take of Americana. Their main influence is Neil Young, along with the sound of West Coast of the 1960s, such as The Byrds, as well as elements of the same-timeframe psychedelia (Strawberry Alarm Clock, The 13th Floor Elevator). It is surprising to find out they were also, admittedly, inspired by – Oasis but a live encounter confirms their leaning towards more grand and epic sound.

The frontstage occupying vocalist Deasy, guitarist Daniel Ryan and bassist Padhraic McMahon, sow songs while concentrating on playing to the detriment of showmanship. There is a banjo-powered sweep of ‘Big Sur’ or the introspective intimacy of ‘Old Friends And New Lovers’. ‘Deckchairs and Cigarettes’, ‘Your Love Is Like Las Vegas’ are a couple of other quality tracks that will be found on their debut album due out in June, as well as ‘Santa Cruz’ – a song also included on the EP issued in November last year – one of their bestest cuts.

Their current single, ‘One Horse Town’, is another song inspired by the romance and open spaces of America and you can’t but wonder the power of fiction. What The Thrills adore and glorify is the mass delusion, a cinema-induced fictitious land; it is staged reality we are flogged, not the grit, the violence, brutality of inter-racial tensions and social dysfunction. The Thrills simply aid the propaganda? Anyhow, we are not here to judge whether this lot supports Bush or otherwise, they appear to be a band at arm’s reach from the future.

Hotly tipped five-piece’s show at ULU is their biggest headlining gig (as Deasy pointed out towards the end) but it must have been underwhelming after supporting Morrissey at the Royal Albert Hall, London, that was their first ever UK show!? The Thrills handled it well then, they do it even better tonight with a very pleasant gig filled with mellifluous tunes that will not correct the cultural wrongs of late… But then, who can nowadays?

Chris Martin recently quipped Coldplay were Dire Straits of their generation; could The Thrills be this generation’s The Small Byrds?
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Tour dates:

15 March – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
16 March – Station, Bristol
17 March – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth