Thee Oh Sees don’t just play shows—they detonate them. At Warsaw on October 25th, John Dwyer and his feral crew turned the venerable Greenpoint hall into a furnace of sound, sweat, and sheer willpower. From the first note, the set was a muscular, fever-pitched assault—tight, brutal, and unapologetically alive.
Anchoring the chaos were the band’s twin drummers, whose synchronized barrage delivered not just rhythm but propulsion, pushing the audience into a kind of ecstatic delirium. Their double-barreled attack didn’t merely lend heft—it animated the room, turning the pit into a cyclone of limbs and laughter. Few bands can summon that kind of collective madness; Thee Oh Sees make it feel elemental.
Dwyer, the kinetic nucleus of it all, remains a force of nature—a punk polymath channeling the same unrelenting drive that Henry Rollins once embodied in Black Flag and the Rollins Band. His guitar, held at armpit level, looked less like an instrument and more like a weapon. Each riff hit like shrapnel, every break a reload.
The setlist drew generously from the band’s latest record, whose jagged energy translated perfectly live. And when they tore into “Tidal Wave,” my personal favorite, the room erupted in shared mania—a perfect collision of band and believers.
Midway through, Dwyer paused just long enough to deliver one of the night’s finest Fuck You moments: recounting how Sam Smith and Live Nation had asked him to move the show to another date. His response? A flat, glorious “No” and “Fuck Sam Smith.” It was the kind of middle finger to the corporate machinery that makes us love Thee Oh Sees even more.
By the end, ears rang, bodies ached, and hearts pounded. Thee Oh Sees left Warsaw scorched—proof that rock’s raw nerve is alive and still kicking.
-Jonathan Levitt 10/30/25
(all photos by Jonathan Levitt Instagram: El Chingon Photography)
Wonderful images, Jonathan.
Great piece, Jonathan!!