Suffering & The Hideous Thieves
Seattle, Washington7 reviews across 4 releases
Suffering & The Hideous Thieves was a Seattle project formed around Jeff Bettger after his work with Ninety Pound Wuss and Raft of Dead Monkeys. The band replaced those groups' abrasive punk with a singer-songwriter sound built from delicate melodies, intricate arrangements and vocals that were strained but emotionally direct. Real Panic Formed set lonely, spiritual storytelling against sparse accompaniment, while the Hideous Thieves added harmonies and a wider instrumental frame. By Rats in Heaven, the music had become folkish alternative rock with a gothic atmosphere, extended songs and lyrics that moved between comic images and disturbing subjects. Ashamed brought a cleaner structure without making the sound conventional: its dark rock carried unusual arrangements and intense shifts between clear singing and guttural delivery. The group worked as a changing collective around Bettger rather than a fixed lineup.
The band was still appearing live in Seattle in 2006, after Ashamed had been released. Its later history is less settled: Bettger eventually said he was no longer playing in bands apart from church work, and he subsequently worked on the project DRYBNZ with Joe Mendonca. Suffering & The Hideous Thieves therefore became a former project rather than a continuing band, without a clearly documented breakup date. Bettger remained active in music-related work, but the Hideous Thieves did not produce a later phase comparable to the sequence that ran from the 2001 debut through the increasingly experimental Rats in Heaven and the more structured Ashamed.
4 releases reviewed
Real Panic Formed
The Hush Hush Split
Rats in Heaven
