THE THERMALS’ last record, Now We Can See, got a bum rap. Personally, I think the issue was just that the album before, The Body, the Blood and the Machine , was so complex and fascinating, so deep and wide, that fans weren’t ready for the stripped-down rip-roar of their latest. Over time, though, I’ve come to like it even more than its predecessor. Though not technically a concept album in the same way, its themes of death and dying are every bit as powerful once given time to set in. Besides that, “Where We Were Alive” and “When I Died” are two of the best songs they’ve ever written. Now based in Portland, the band was the biggest success to come out of the Sunnyvale Music Club, a collective that fostered a vibrant underground music scene in Sunnyvale and Cupertino in the ’90s.
THE THERMALS play Saturday (Feb. 13) at 9pm at the Blank Club, 44 S. Almaden Ave., San Jose. Tickets are $14. (408.29.BLANK)
