Frontman of alt-indie legends The Thermals sits in. Newski and Hutch discuss quarantine drinking habits, conversational awareness, accepting criticism, mosh pit survival, psychedelic experiences, and taking a break from the music industry.
More on Hutch: http://www.thethermals.com/
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Pick up Life Upside Down (CD or vinyl), produced by Hutch Harris…
EXCERPT:
Brett: Did you ever see mosh pits get out of hand, to the point where you’d have to coach the mosh pits into not killing each other?
Hutch: We played Beachland in Cleveland a bunch, and that definitely got out of hand a lot. There was a crew of kids who would just bring glitter, shaving cream, and water guns, an arsenal of shit they would bring. And the owner got super-pissed, because there were a lot of shows where it was just trashed at the end of the night. And we had this guitar player who sprained his leg, and was on crutches the rest of the tour, because he slipped in shaving cream when he was on stage.
All these kids planned it, they were interspersed throughout the audience. They weren’t just in one area. I forget the song, but when we started this song we were just bombarded with water and shaving cream and glitter and confetti and all this shit. It was coming at us from all angles.
I remember seeing one of the girls in that group later at another venue in Cleveland, and she was saying how the owner of Beachland hated all those kids.
Brett: Oh yeah.
Hutch: Because they were making such a mess.
Brett: They were like the plant at a peaceful protest.
Hutch: Right! Yeah, exactly!
Brett: Cleveland’s a tough town. Hard-nosed people.
Hutch: I like it, they’re crazy there.
Brett: I can see the Midwest taking to your meat-and-potatoes guitar rock very well.
Hutch: For sure, it’s the same way they love The Hold Steady, who we did a bunch of shows with in Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago. So that make sense.
Brett: You know, I think the first show I ever crowd-surfed was your show in Madison when I was a little guy. I did an interview with you when I was twenty years old.
Hutch: Right, yeah, I remember that. That was at...not Blind Pig, where was that?
Brett: It was at the High Noon Saloon. I interviewed you for the Badger Herald.
Hutch: Right.
Brett: I remember being so terrified to crowd-surf. Because you watch it in movies, you hear about it, you see it at metal shows, and kids get dropped. I remember the anticipation of that, thinking, You’re going to crowd-surf, you’re going to do it, you’ll do it, and what a liberating feeling.
