Second on the Echoplex stage this last Thursday night was Devin Therriault, who looked like a 50s rocker of the future (I don’t know, he had cool lace-up boots) with his pink shirt collar up, and his hair up. He started his set with an upbeat presentation:
‘Hi, My name is Devin Therriault, this is my incredible band, we’re from Brooklyn, and we are sooo happy we are not there, we are so happy we are in LA … this is a song we’re all gonna understand, it’s about shooting your best friend in the face, it’s called ‘Things on my mind’.
And he jumped into it as he said with a dynamism and a raw energy he maintained all the way through. With his Mick Jaeggerish high-pitched vocals, howling a lot of woo-ooooos, his catchy riffs, and his intelligent oldies-turned-newbies tunes, he was a sort a cool revival of the genre.
And Devin Therriault has definitively understood all the right gimmicks of rock’n’roll, he moves his hips like a future rock star, speaks with confidence to his audience, and puts some gel in his hair like Elvis, even though the effect wears out after a few songs because of the excessive sweat… a proof the energy he releases is anything but fake.
I only recognized the few songs I already knew of course, like the very catchy and fun rocking ‘You’re mine’, but all his songs seemed impregnated by the same combination of punk nervousness, funny faces and addictive and bouncing melodies.
He was making his LA debut on Thursday but he is also opening tonight for Peter, Bjorn, and John’s sold out show at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock, CA. I read that this was even the first time Devin was playing outside of his state. The whole evening at the Echoplex was set up by FYF Fest organizer, Sean Carlson, who has become a real fan of Therriault’s music. With such promotion, I am sure he will be back in LA very soon