Though Kathy Foster has long been a Portland denizen, she’s originally from Sunnyvale. “Mountain View; Sunnyvale” she clarifies. “I went to De Anza. Sold vintage clothes at the flea market.”
That was almost two decades ago. Foster has gone on to reach a certain level of indie stardom since her days slinging old stock—as the bassist behind one of the biggest bands to come out of the Northwest in the 2000s: the Thermals.
But that’s not all she is. She’s got several other projects she keeps busy with—breezy indie-pop outfit All Girl Summer Fun Band, duo Hutch & Kathy—and another, called Hurry Up, which is coming to Homestead Lanes on Saturday.
“It just kinda started out as a joke, almost,” she says of Hurry Up’s formation, in 2011. “We were playing New York and she (Maggie) came to our show.” Hurry Up is made up of Foster, her Thermals bandmate Westin Glass, and, Maggie Vale, who worked for the Thermals’ label, Kill Rock Stars, at the time. “We were talking about how we’re always ‘the nice people.’ (And we said), ‘We should start a hardcore band!’”
Days went on, and the joke didn’t die. “We were talking about it, but as we were talking about it, we were like, ‘We should do this.’”
Three years later, and Hurry Up is no longer a joke. They’re a fully fledged band that plays shows and records albums—their self-titled debut, released this summer, is currently on Spotify. Kathy is on drums, and Glass is on guitar—the reverse of their Thermals roles.
And that’s the draw of Hurry Up—for Foster, anyway. Even rock stars can feel the squeeze of monotony, and Hurry Up allows her to let loose a little.
“The Thermals have been kind of a career for me and for us,” she says. “So when we play shows, we usually play big places.” Hurry Up is a much more casual affair. “I wanted to get back to playing small shows. I also wanted to get back to playing drums, ’cause that was my first instrument when I was 16.”
The songs are different, too: they’re definitely louder, but also, in a way, more relaxed. “All the songs that we’ve written are just kinda, like, jamming,” says Foster. “Hurry Up is a little more on-the-spot collaboration… songs that are tongue-in-cheek and whatever feels good, cathartically. It just gets real sweaty and shouty. (This is us) just going for it.”
Hurry Up play Homestead Bowl in Cupertino on Aug. 1 at 8pm.
