THICK SHAKES OPEN FOR THOSE DARLINS | REVIEW
Great Scott | Allston, MA | 10/13/13

Did you ever wonder what the Kinks would have sounded like if they had a female lead singer? I hadn’t either but I sure was psyched when I found out. Boston’s Thick Shakes have released a series of EPs and singles over the past couple of years and have been building a name for themselves. Their brand of garage rock was perfectly paired as the opening act when Those Darlins’ rolled into Great Scott on Columbus Day weekend.

Dressed in an 80s revival office dress and patent leather flats,  Lindsey belted out a series of rough and tumble tracks that could have been mined from the Kinks/Who/Stones singles catalog, circa 1964. The set was fast, loose and raw — just the way you want your garage rock. Angular, distorted guitar and White Stripes/Meg White-style drum banging round out the mix. Each beat driven with a velocity and vitality that hints that the whole hot mess might implode at any moment.

In the end, that’s exactly what makes Thick Shakes, and garage rock in general, so appealing — their representation of a timeless sense of rock and roll wonder — their primal urge to make blissful noise with guitar, bass and drums.

Sample Thick Shakes garage rock goodness: http://thickshakes.bandcamp.com.

-George Dow

| George Dow is also the editor of spinthis45 and a regular contributor to The Noise Boston, The Deli – New England, and Hybrid Magazine. |