White Denim at Whelan’s, Dublin on Saturday 23rd October 2013
White Denim have had a busy few years. Since 2008, they have released six albums and two EPs. It’s hardly surprising then that the band don’t get on the road too often and Saturday’s Whelan’s show was their first in the capital since a 2009 gig in the Academy 2.
Before the Texan rockers emerged, it was the turn of Canterbury psychedelic rockers Syd Artur. The band seem stuck in the wrong time in history, with big hair, retro woollen jumpers and accents that you didn’t think existed anymore. It perfectly fits the music though; think early 1970s Steely Dan with a touch of prog thrown in. There’s a willingness to experiment too – the band seem just as comfortable with keyboards and violins, like on Edge of the Earth as they do with guitars. Add truly impressive, almost Michael Bublé-esque, vocal abilities of Liam Magill – Dorothy is a prime example of this – and you’ve got a support band threatening to eclipse the headliner.
Not that it seemed to worry White Denim when they took to the stage. Front-man James Petralli looks every inch the laid-back indie musician in his runners and open shirt. Bassist Steve Terebecki and guitarist Austin Jenkins, both wearing ill-fitting jeans and cowboy boots, do not. Nevertheless, they know how to play off each other and from the opener, new single Pretty Green, they do it excellently. They add in extra instrumental flourishes here and there, but all the elements fit so seamlessly together and if you didn’t know it was improvised it would be hard to believe it. The four-piece accelerate and brake as one and are always ready if one is about to veer off in a different direction. It’s thoroughly impressive that a band can be so comfortable with one another that their jamming can seem so choreographed.
These instrumental wanderings that the band take though never seem vain. They never seem to be saying “Look what I can do” to the audience, merely enjoying what they do in front of a packed, sweaty crowd. They power through the songs, squeezing over twenty into an energetic 75 minute set; gone are the days when White Denim played an entire set without stopping, but we’ll forgive them for that.
Not everything works perfectly and, as you would expect from a band that release so much music, there is an amount of filler. Some of the newer material, Keys and At Night in Dreams for example, follow a more country-tinged rock than some of their earlier garage-rock work and doesn’t quite elicit the same response from the audience. Breakthrough single Shake Shake Shake predictably gets a huge response from the audience, as does I Start to Run, though the lack of ceremony surrounding them detracts slightly. Overall, the complaints are fairly minor. White Denim came to Whelan’s delivered a show full of energy, enthusiasm and no little skill – James Petralli’s voice has developed into a fine one – and that’s no more than can be expected of them.
White Denim Photo Gallery
Photos: Dave Kelly
