Surrogate, The New Trust, Themes and The Shimmies

It was almost unbearable. Last Monday night’s bogging heat promised to present sticky, sweaty obstacles in the proposed enjoyment of the potent lineup at the Crux. Locals and perceived touring band members loitered about the sidewalk out in front of the chameleonic innards of Chico’s favorite art gallery, chain smoking, leaning sopping T-shirts on cars whose owners were not readily known, doing their best to sate the oppressive warmth with swigs of water or brown-bagged beast, but learning with each passing second that it was not helping, and that very soon we’d have to get inside the stink-pot to check out The Shimmies. Hooray for summer rock shows!

The Shimmies noodled around on a full-hearted, half-executed rendition of Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” before getting down to brass tacks with the quasi-vulnerable, wholly explosive soundscape that has made the band a local favorite over the past year or so. Siblings Sean, Jimmy and Stephen Galloway plunked curiously layered guitar arpeggio with cranky velvet grooves in sincere moments of bombast and clarity, as evidenced on tunes like “Science and Wine.” Drummer Jack Gingerich’s skin work held the cacophony down in the pocket, utilizing creative fills to propel what are at root pop-oriented songs to more stratospheric heights. The whole set, almost as if in prophecy of the bands yet to take the stage, was a glistening mirage, and provided a more-than fitting opening to the show.

Santa Rosa’s The New Trust took the stage next and instilled a much more stripped merger of pop-rock experimentalism. Bassist/vocalist Josh Staples (former right-hand man to Judah Nagler in The Velvet Teen) raided every slippery string for the low-end anchor to guitarist/vocalist (and Staples’ wife) Sarah Sanger’s subdued fretwork. Drummer Julia Lancer pounded her kit mercilessly, and although the trio got off to a shaky start, subsequent tunes like the brand new “Ethan Hawke Is A Dead Man” provided lucid glimpses at the superiority of The New Trust’s catalogue. While not as crisp as I’ve seen them before, Staples and Co. never fail to project a seamless abandon through their oft-times complicated arrangements; they’re having fun, or so it seems, and it’s hard not to get swept up in the soaring tenor melodies and spacious punk rock interplay they project in a live setting.



Following on the New Trust’s heels were Minneapolis, MN’s Themes, a virtual unknown to anyone in attendance save for the presence of the parents of vocalist/baritone guitarist Jacy McIntosh. The band included Bryce Midas Richardson on bass, baritone guitar, accordion and vocals, Kelsey Crawford on piano and vocals, and a fantastic drummer whom I never got the name of (oops) who absolutely destroyed a crash cymbal (which resembled a quarter-peeled orange due to the outer ring being progressively detached with each pummeling swat). Themes was instantly engaging; McIntosh’s epic vocal bravado laid the groundwork for the multi-instrumentalists in the band to paint lush resonance within highly progressive musical evolutions. Crawford’s lovely key work added lulling repose to what were by and large monolithic hybrids of folk/rock/orchestral-pop opuses, and the result was hugely impressive; the sparkling brows of the Crux audience nodded along with every plotted beat. Find this band and listen to them today.

Chico rock quintet Surrogate rounded out the evening to an increasingly enthusiastic heap of listeners, and somehow siphoned whatever energy was left in the room and injected it into their intoxicating grab bag of heady, catchy tunes. The band opened up with the brand new song “Nobody Really Thinks About You” and implored the by-now-required front-row sing-alongs in proceeding tracks off their full-length Love Is For The Rich. Fill-in drummer Cayle Hunter offered a more brutal backbone than that of hiatus-ridden percussionist Jordan Mallory, but that didn’t detract from the sheer excellence of vocalist/guitarist Chris Keene’s songwriting, or the tasteful pop undercurrent to the

band’s compositions.

It was almost unbearable, but I’m willing to bet the sweat-soaked brigade filing out of the Crux were only more than happy to have embraced the swelter in exchange for another high-caliber local show.

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