By Paulie Maturo, photos by Max Ketterer

Nov. 6th – Zookraught, The Thing, Monsterwatch; Sunset Tavern

After squeezing my hatchback into a cramped parking space in Seattle’s quiet Ballard district, I began my walk down Market Street, where I was delighted to pass Black Ends’ ‘Psychotic Spew’ display in the window of Sonic Boom Records. I was met with cold dry air and several honks from disgruntled Tesla drivers as I made my way towards the Sunset Tavern. On cold nights crowds always seem to linger in the light of bar doors. I squeezed through this throng, packed with band t-shirts and punks wearing Zookraught’s signature face paint, to arrive in the Sunset’s warmly lit barroom. I struggled to differentiate between the drink line and the line into the venue, but finally finding my way, I produced my ticket and ID and was sloppily stamped on the wrist. Within the dimly lit back room, a crowd eagerly anticipates Zookraught’s opening performance. Zookraught had just returned from their “Vida Violet” tour, an almost 8 week long run that spanned most of the U.S. The dance punk band’s homecoming performance opened with a heavy bass riff and cheers of “Fuck Donald Trump!” and “Free Palestine!” which instantly moved the crowd into a frenzy of cathartic lurching dance. They underscored their love of Seattle, and the need for community after the election results the night before.

The Thing entered the stage through a neon haze, silhouetted in front of Sunset Tavern’s vaporwave backdrop. The opening drum and bass line instantly captivated the remaining audience, an audience that would quickly grow as smokers outside finished their conversations in their own haze of frozen breath and nicotine smoke. The lead singer, and bassist, moves like water on stage. Hands absentmindedly flowing from note to note, finger picking each string with ease. The drummer peppers the set with syncopated drum fills, and an impressively drawn out drum solo. The bulk of the set is packed with spacy guitar chords and grounding rhythms that drive the song forward, reminiscent of surfy psych rock of the 60s and 70s, while taking inspiration from DIY, Garage Rock, and Grunge. The Thing’s sound is simultaneously familiar, yet unlike anything I have heard. Songs such as “You’re The One” and “The Thing Is” really remind me of Minneapolis surf-psych four piece France Camp, while songs like “Dixie Queen” lean into powerful garage rock and DIY influences. Overall The Thing’s sound encapsulates influences like early Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett, Hendrix, and The Doors and classic Detroit garage rockers like Jack White, the Detroit Cobras, Goober and the Peas, and The Rationals. Between tracks the four members, Michael Carter, Jack Bradley, Zane Accord, and Lucas Ebeling, sip cocktails and smile at each other. This energy resonates through the audience, who move around the dance floor tirelessly; reaching an excited hand towards the stage, jumping along with the rhythm, or turning toward their fellow concert goers and smiling with mutual love for the music.

Nov, 9th – Cocker Spaniel, The Thing; Cush Hill

On a rainy Saturday evening in Tacoma’s north end, university students, dripping with fresh evening rain, slowly trickle into the ground floor of the living room venue Cush Hill. Cocker Spaniel opens the bill a full 45 minutes after the intended start time. But as the crowd grows, the energy heightens and spirits lift. After the opening band, The Thing’s set begins explosively. Instantly, the mid sized crowd is awakened into an electric energy. One after another, dancers flail and bash against each other in a hurricane of exhilarated joy. The floor, scarred and burnished hardwood, feels as if it might collapse into the basement rooms below. The Crowd shrank and grew as The Thing’s set went on, but the brightly decorated room remained charged with ecstatic viewers that lit up the walls as they bounced off of them. As The Thing rages inside, a few attendees escape the indoor heat to the back porch, where they sip drinks and share cigarettes. But even here, the infectious rhythms caress people into dance. 

Cush Hill is a popular house venue in the Tacoma community, particularly for University of Puget Sound students, and has been a part of the music community for almost a decade. The Thing’s own Michael Carter (Puget Sound class of 2020) recalls going to shows and playing music  in this very living room during his time at University of Puget Sound. “As soon as I stepped in I was like, yeah I’ve been here.”

The Thing first formed in New York in 2018 when, at the time, the four members all attended different colleges. Bradley recalls the early days of the band, stating “we would just kind of meet up during spring breaks or summer breaks, winter breaks, and start putting [music] together, just making demos and just trying to write songs.” It was shortly after this that their first album began to emerge which, according to Bradley, “took about a year and a half to make” and was “recorded at different times” in Ableton throughout 2019 and 2020.

The band started touring full time in 2023, after they met their current drummer Lucas Ebeling in New York. Since then they have been on the road virtually non-stop, only settling down to record music. When they do settle down it’s never for “more than a month” says Bradley.  Their latest album, The Thing Is, was the first that they had recorded since solidifying their lineup as a four piece. All the songs recorded on their 2024 album were recorded live over the course of just nine days during May and June of 2023. “Most of those songs are what the sound was in the room,” states Bradley. Collectively, “The Thing” plays almost every single role that one can within the music industry. The band records and mixes all their own music, as well as handling all their own promotion, video work, and booking. 

A band that tours full time travels a treacherous road. Being on the road is not only physically taxing but mentally too. Carter says he “Feel[s] like we’re just kind of starting to grapple with some of the challenges. Like, at first I felt like, yeah, it was tiring. But now coming back from doing like 30 shows, essentially, in 30 days in Europe, and then coming back [to the U.S.] and then coming back out here, like, a week later, for a month and a half, it’s tiring. It’s hard to just catch up, like, gain your life force back, your energy to give to the show fully.” Money is also a source of anxiety for the band. One of the biggest challenges when touring, says Accord, is how “Everything’s just so expensive now. Gas is expensive, hotels are expensive, food’s expensive, but we still get paid the same.” These resources are much more accessible in Europe than they are in the states. Carter says that “finding an [affordable] place to stay [in the U.S.] is a challenge.” Even food and gas are much less expensive overseas. While American bands are often seen as some of the most successful artists, and are often at the forefront of the media, these sentiments speak to the challenges American artists face, and the changes that the music industry might need to make in order to remain successful.

While the journey of a touring musician is hard, there is beauty in it too. “One of the things that does kind of give you life,” says Bradley, “is meeting people in different areas // we get to, kind of like, be a part of someone’s town or someone’s life and, you know, get a tour of a place and, like, see a different perspective. So it’s, it’s really cool to be a part of all this. We were just saying, like, we would have never been in this town if we weren’t playing music. And that’s really cool.” Touring isn’t all about playing shows and promoting your music, either. Being a touring musician is being a part of a culture and community of other touring musicians. You become connected to the musical communities of all the cities you visit. “The more you do it, the more embedded you become,” states Carter, “which is super rewarding. // This run that we’re on now is born out of the amount of touring we’ve done. Like, Monsterwatch saw us at Sunset last time we played there. And they were like ‘let’s do a show together.’ And now we get to play with, like, the best up and coming Seattle bands.” Jack Bradley describes The Thing as a “community oriented” band. While the bulk of their tour is pre-planned out of necessity, they try to participate in this culture and community as much as possible, “tapping into whatever local scene there is.” Their set at Cush Hill spawned from this love of community. Knowing about the house show scene surrounding UPS from Carter’s time at the university, they sought out a venue, describing their free Saturday as “the perfect opportunity. [House Shows] are the most fun to play because, like, people are actually having fun.”

Just as it began, The Things set ends explosively, and all too soon, leaving the crowd restless for more. Students embark upon their damp journeys home with sentiments of “that was so fun!” and “that band was so good!” The Thing will have a place in their hearts for time to come, not just because of their music, but because of that special night when The Thing became a part of their community.

You can find The Thing on Spotify and Instagram.