Thursday, October 15, 2026 – with Opener: Traps PS – Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL
The rain soaked me while I walked the 20-something minutes between my Spothero parking space and the door to Thalia Hall on Chicago’s near-south side. I got into the venue and sloshed with each step my shoes planted in front of me but I had laser focus because I had a specific goal in mind: visit the merch room. It was calling me. There was something in me that really needed a shirt with a picture of a melting yellow Smurf. But possibly even cooler than getting me a t-shit is how Osees collaborate with Dead Meat Design when they come to Chicago for these multi-night (they played Thursday the 15th and Friday the 16th of October this year) performances; so that means there were custom, limited-edition posters for sale, and they were badass looking. You could get a Thursday October 15th specific one or a Friday October 16th specific one. My understanding is if you got both of them, they go together to form one huge poster.
I bought a standard print Thursday October 15th poster for which I’d soon out to Target to buy a frame and get it up on my wall in the basement, home of my favored rock memorabilia. (I brought with me a permanent marker in case I bumped into bandleader/singer/guitarist John Dwyer and then I could make that memorabilia even more special with an autograph – but this night, it was not in the cards as we never crossed paths.) Anyway that poster shows a screaming bright yellow/green/psychedelic display that looks like pretty much how Osees sound. It was that standard print as mentioned but you could also get a limited foil one (if I recall it was like twice the cost, but it did look awesome. I ponied up the coinage I could but knew I was about to pay my mortgage too so um. LOL!!!!!)
Obviously I came to this gig not just for the cool limited-edition posters. I found a spot with the other really excited fans, all of us who’d come early to catch the opener: Traps PS from Los Angeles. I’d gotten a chance to check them out in advance, saw they’d been around a while and had a bunch of releases, and I was pretty happy with the choice of opener. The band’s three members took to the stage and didn’t say much but played a good set; a good, rhythmic, post-punk set, all trebley guitar (ear-piercingly so at times), bass lines holding down the grooves, and locked-in drum beats (sometimes quite danceable) to round out the sound. The tight rhythmic post-punk thing made me think a bit of Protomartyr but definitely different vocals, sort of howled vocals as opposed to Protomartyr’s lower-pitch speak-singing. I genuinely think I’ll be keeping Traps PS in rotation in my listening.
After that set the audience swelled and also I went and get nice and caffeinated at the side bar, which is hard to do using $4 little mostly-ice Diet Cokes, but of course anything is possible. I knew I made the right decision re: caffeine consumption when it occurred to me the stage setup had two full drum sets at the very front. Did….did someone leave this drum set here? No it was on purpose and soon I saw it on display, the two-drummer assault (courtesy of drummers Dan Rincon and Paul Quttrone) that I’d be witnessing over the course of the next some 18 songs.
Osees played with an unrelenting energy and their set featured long-time past member and frequent collaborator Brigid Dawson on harmonizing vocals, plus a tambourine and what looked like maracas too. It was an interesting stage set-up because like I said, the two drum sets were front and center while the guest vocalist (the tickets said something like “Osees featuring Brigid Dawson”) was way (way) in the back behind said drums. John Dwyer led from the left side of the stage while bassist Tim Hellman held down the right side, and keyboardist Tomas Dolas was out back, basically in the Brigid territory.
The drums were powerful as was to be expected, and then the guitar sound was great too. Every little effect-laden guitar-slidey thing that Dwyer tends to do (and while we’re at it every vocal “whoop!” that would accompany said guitar-slidey) always came across nice and clear. Extendo-jam “The Dream” was a highlight among other garagey ass-kickings like, of course, “I Come from the Mountain,” which they wisely opened with. And I was happy to hear one of my favorites, “Web”, which coincidentally makes great use of that guitar-slidey-delay-thing that I mentioned.
I will say they seemed to focus on their more “classic” stuff so if that’s your jam, this was your night. I say that because although they had an excellent album out this year (Off Course) that newer stuff was not represented in the setlist. Honestly there were some other songs I would have loved for them to play too, as I’m really partial to their psycho-prog era circa the amazingly-titled Face Stabber from 2019 but it’s like…they couldn’t play every song they ever wrote now could they? Anyway “Plastic Plant” from A Weird Exits (sort of around the same era – 2016) worked great for me, especially the driving drum beat laid out between two drum sets. Bottom line I saw Osees Thursday and had my mind blown. The collector in me was pleased with the merch and the ass-kicker in me was pleased with the setlist. I know the group will be back and then I’ll have my mind blown again. Maybe you’ll be there too.
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