Eclectic Austin rockers White Denim have been chugging along for close to 15 years, and in the process they have been quietly building a prolific body of work. The only constant members of the band – guitarist and singer James Petralli and bassist Steve Terebecki – opened their own recording studio called Radio Milk earlier this year. This is where they made their 8th LP Performance in 2018, only to follow it up with their 9th LP Side Effects less than a year later. On April 20th, the band came through Portland, Oregon in support of Side Effects for the first of two long sold-out shows at the Doug Fir Lounge.
Maybe it was the fact that it was 4/20 or the sell-out crowd, but the members of White Denim approached every second of their set with intensity. From the opening notes of “Backseat Driver”, the quartet unleashed a frenzied explosion of heavy playing. They would mostly stick to songs off Performance and Side Effects with a handful of older favorites thrown in for good measure. As the lone guitarist, Petralli used a range of effects to make it sound like he was constantly dueling with another guitar. This worked to great effect as the band veered from rock and roll to punk to blues, sometimes in the span of a single song. Though the band has found success in the jam band scene, they are anything but, as Petralli takes a riff-based approached instead of noodling to make for an extra tight sound. “Drugs” was a prime example of this with its 70s rock and roll breakdowns.
Throughout the set it was often hard to tell when one song became another as the band took the audience through a roller coaster ride of time changes and different eras of guitar rock, all with extreme precision. It helped that Michael Hunter created an array of guitar-like effects using his Moog and his keyboard, hammering away like Garth Hudson on a wild acid carnival trip. He got downright jittery on the free-flowing 60s psych sounding “Hallelujah Strike Gold”, and the band cranked things up on “Real Deal Momma” to create a sound skin to ZZ Top smoking meth with Frank Zappa.
Drummer Greg Clifford and bassist Steve Terebecki never let up with a relentless groove, with Clifford going heavy on the cowbell during the high-octane shredder “Had 2 Know”. These two managed to keep pace with the madness happening on guitar, and also managed to add to the funkiness of songs like “Thank You”. While there weren’t many slow moments during the set, Petralli did manage to ease the band through a couple with the slow and sunny R&B of “Take It Easy (Ever After Lasting Love)” and the soulful “Street Joy”.
There was not a single dull moment as the band hit a peak in the very beginning of their set and never came down. Their music is definitely danceable at times, but most in the crowd could do little more than bob around due to being so dumbfounded at the complex instrumental spectacle taking place onstage. Few acts today play with the kind of energy that was on display at the Doug Fir, and it’s a wonder that after so many years the band is not playing massive venues. They may just be too weird, writing catchy as hell songs but refusing to ever commit to one sound or style. Their fans know this and are devoted precisely because they want to see what the band will do next, and in Portland it was clear they approve of what White Denim is doing right now.
Photos by Greg Homolka.
One Response
Nice article. Just one minor correction; the one song that you referred to as “Drugs” is actually just called “Drug”. No plural there. 😉