Seismic-Sound Commentary: Kithkin, Tomten and Danny The Street (Kind of) at Sunset Tavern (2-1-12)

So, I was SUPPOSED to check out Danny The Street but my ass is forever late for everything that ever was, so I went ahead and missed about 80% of their set. Hey, I thought they were the headliners! I suck. Tonight’s show is rounded out by Tomten and Kithkin. (FYI- Tomten and Kithkin are both named after mythical creatures! Nerds!)

 Music! Danny The Street are psychedelic rock, although nothing new, they just happen to be good psychedelic rock. But I have to say, I have a few singers whose voices do not appeal to me, Eddie Vedder is one of them. Shit is like nails on a chalkboard. For me, the singer for Danny The Street has one of those voices. Great lyrics, just isn’t my jam. I’m going to quote my bartender friend Joe, “Their music was good enough for me not to rip on them”.

 Tomten. Oh, Tomten. You are the band I would have had a crush on in high school, before I had heard much music and I used to get lady boners for really skinny hippie dudes. The lead singer looks like the love child of Ray Davies and Shaggy from Scooby-Doo and dresses like every dude I fell in love with in middle school. On to the music…dreamy, Brit-poppy. Lena and Brian vocal harmonies are a groovy mesh. They really, really want to be The Kinks, which is fully understandable…The Kinks fucking rule. But The Kinks are over. (UPDATE: I got real fucking high, listened to Tomten on their Bandcamp page and I really fucking dug the jams. Real hard. Thanks, weed!)

Here comes Kithkin. Holy sweet shit. Kithkin was like the fucking Jolt Cola of the night. First off, they have a bazillion drums. Aside from the pretty extensive kit of the drummer/vocalist, each member of the band had their own drum and the keyboardist has some goddamn maracas and a tambourine. This shit is PER-FUCKING-CUSSIVE. Which is exactly how I like it. I could feel everything Kithkin played with my whole body. You want to know how to instantly endear yourself to an audience of 20-somethings? Play Phil Fucking Collins. They opened with a cover of “In The Air Tonight” that would have made Phil himself hella jelly. And everyone immediately fell in love with Kithkin.         

Their set felt like church, (or what I’d imagine church would feel like. I’m a godless heathen.) a lot of energy, the drums and call/response in their songs. Among my favorites of their set was a song called “Treefell”, it’s “oh-we-oh-we-oh-we-oh-we-oh-we-oooh” chorus is catchy as fuck. Other favorites: “Move Slow”, which is the musical equivalent of a slithering snake, in the hottest way possible, and “Ampersand”, which was like getting punched in the face with music, in the nicest way possible. Their drummer/singer looks like a Greek god and a baby angel combined. I would have wanted to run away with him to a tropical island, live together forever and make baby angel/Greek god children but then he would never be able to share his beautiful music with the world. I was also taken by their keyboardist, who was wearing a Parliament t-shirt under a Hawaiian shirt. He was the cutest cheeseburger in paradise I’ve seen in a while. Major lady boners all around. I will be keeping my ear on these guys, they deserve to be big-time famous. As my bartender buddy Joe said, “They are the best band to play The Sunset in weeks.” Weeks. Thanks for the lady boners, boys. Keep being super fucking amazing.
~Chelsea Robinson