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NO APOLOGIES
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"We’re just young pups lost in the world of rock and roll," joked Thrills frontman Conor Deasy, as the Dublin band launched into an encore after a 45-minute set at the Paradise last Friday night. It was his way of apologizing to the crowd for having already played almost all of the songs from the fivesome’s 2003 debut, So Much for the City (Virgin), but he could just as easily have been referring to the group’s understated stage presence. Indeed, the boyish, ragamuffin band seemed a little stunned to find themselves faced with a raucous crowd of American fans. Or maybe they were just worn out after an evening spent taking in the Sox-Mariners game at Fenway, whose length caused their set to be delayed by more than an hour. That left the crowd, which seemed to have a high percentage of Irish expatriates, with plenty of time to drink to the point of boisterous enthusiasm before the band took the stage. So it didn’t take much prompting from Deasy to get everyone cheering as the Thrills worked their way through a set of sunny, sophisticated pop dappled with pristine harmonies and soaring organ trills. The mood on stage was easy and relaxed as Daniel Ryan and Padraic McMahon switched off between guitar and bass and Easy, who looked rumpled in a blazer and jeans, unleashed an array of indie-rock-style Mick Jigger dance moves. They played a rousing version of their single "Big Sur" that had a rootsy charm even without the banjo that’s on the album. And Deasy panted theatrically during an animated "Say It Isn’t So," which blared with tangy guitars and Kevin Horan’s spry keyboard refrains. They took a more subdued approach to the mournful "Old Friends, New Lovers," with its spot-on harmonies and cascading organ melodies, and the Western-flavored waltz "Just Traveling Through," with its gliding, countrified guitar licks. After the harder-rocking Americana of "Santa Cruz (You’re Not That Far)," with Deasy on impassioned harmonica, had livened things back up, the band returned for a two-song encore that closed with the upbeat, piano-driven anthem "Don’t Steal Our Sun." They may have started late and come up short on material, but by the end of the encore, the Thrills had nothing to apologize for.
BY SARAH TOMLINSON
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