The Thermals @ Crocodile Cafe, Seattle

Brevity has it's virtue, and the Thermals have it. They've mastered the art of cramming catchy pop melodies over distorted power chords with a big "Screw You" to the 3-minute 30-second formula.

"Top of the Earth" is especially remarkable in it's representation of everything Thermals: it's two versuses, a chorus, and a third verse, all in 59 seconds. Between their two albums, the cumulative running time is a concise 56 minutes. It's no surprise then that their show includes nearly every song off those albums with almost no pause. With their third album finished and awaiting release this summer, they actually only played three new songs. What that reveals about the rest is still uncertain, but they appear moving one step further from the Lo-Fi punk masterpiece of More Parts Per Million. But don't worry. It's still very thermal.

The small crowd at the Crocodile was shamefully timid. Nothing like the ceaseless moshpit at the Knitting Factory last year. It's not really music you can stand idly in the wings. You need to participate. You need to shout along, count "Two Two Three, Three Two Three."

You know, just go thermal.