I typically reserve the Band Crush space for gushing about some of my favorite artists but today I wanted to do something a little different. Gushing will happen but instead of writing fresh words about my adoration of this particular band, I want to share some words I wrote about this group way back in 2009 for an extinct column that was part of an extinct newspaper (RIP Ear Candy & the print Seattle Post-Intelligencer).
Why no new words? Well, it isn’t because I don’t have anything to say about this particular band. That is far from the case. I’m rehashing my own previously published content because I don’t think I can write a better description of one of my favorite local bands than I did roughly two years ago.
And with that said dear readers, I give you SHIM:
There’s a reason why SHIM capitalizes all the letters in its name. It’s not because the band is trying to stand out, nor is it a clever acronym. No, you type SHIM with the caps-lock key pressed down because lower case letters can’t do justice to the amount of rock hammered out by this bombastic beast of a band.
Like well-groomed cavemen who have unearthed the monstrous, stadium-filling rock of the 1970s, the four hairy men of SHIM play a brand of power rock that could fell a pterodactyl. Or, more simply put, SHIM flat-out rocks. Songs such as the lustful “Animal,” the driving “Highway” and the declarative “Made for the World” made the band’s sophomore record “Feel Like a King” one of the better local rock albums of 2008. The band’s stage show is filled with smoke machines, strobes and two massive triangular flood lights, making SHIM a refreshing rock ‘n’ roll kick in the pants in a music universe filled with intellectual indie rockers and snarky hipster kids.
SHIM performs Friday night at the High Dive along with Guerrilla Candy favorites Hobosexual and Hounds of the Wild Hunt ($8, 9:30 p.m.) as part of the High Dive’s sixth birthday celebration. You can buy your tickets here.
