Thunders
Spin Nightclub
June 14

By the time Thunders took the stage at 1 a.m., I’d been covering live music for over 12 hours. I’d heard good bands. I’d heard bad bands. I’d been at Independent Music + Art Festival at the Harrison Center for the Arts for six hours. I’d seen Death Cab for Cutie play a decent set of new material and old favorites and I’d seen opener Rogue Wave unsurprisingly bore thousands of Death Cab for Cutie fans (except when the band thanked Death Cab for Cutie — they liked that).

By 1 a.m. I wasn’t really in the mood for any more live music. I certainly wasn’t in the mood to hear Thunders’ selection of opening acts. Both were good bands, with good chops and better equipment. But I hated them, and I get the sense that mood colored my impression of these acts. So no review — it just wouldn’t be fair.

There was no guarantee that Thunders’ set would hit me on any meaningful or visceral level, but when they took the stage, they made it count.

The band’s sound — a mix of Jesus and Mary Chain squall, The Stooges driving rumble and messy garage punk — is pretty much a perfect match for those late-starting shows, the ones where you want to kill the opening bands and spend a portion of their sets imagining their demise. It’s just unfocused enough to appeal to everyone and just ambitious enough to appeal to those for who bare bones rock ’n’ roll just isn’t enough.

On Saturday, Thunders celebrated the release of their CD, “The Sympathetic Oscillations EP,” but nearly half the band’s set showcased its new material, due on a new album later this year. While it’s probably too early to tell, the new material seems to showcase the band better than sole songwriter Ryan Reidy’s “Sympathetic Oscillations” material, which was written and recorded without the benefit and input of a band.

The new material snarls a little more, hits a little harder, is more dynamic and gives the listener more to pay attention to. For all of the debut album’s qualities, variety isn’t really one of them. After a few tracks, it stops feeling new.

Live, that problem is effectively stripped away.

Reidy is a great performer, and much of his presence and act seems ripped straight from the book of Iggy Pop, David Bowie and Mick Jagger — and that’s OK. Rock ’n’ roll is all about cribbing influences, or stealing outright, and Reidy does both very well.

He’s also a terrific guitarist — both indulgent and restrained, both flamboyant and mindful to his bandmates. He doesn’t overwhelm the band’s sound or presence on stage, but makes it clear who the crowd should be watching. That’s what rock ’n’ roll is all about.

Fatigue set in during the band’s spontaneous cover of The Stooges’ “Funhouse” cut “Down in the Street,” and worried that I might kill myself trying to drive home, I left.

But if the band’s set was any indication, Thunders is an act to watch.