San Francisco – Usually, crowded shows are not my cup of tea. As someone who likes to hang in the back of the venue, a sold out show does not offer the same sort of space than that of a less populated one, even when hugging the wall along the side or leaning against a pillar towards the rear of the venue. There’s always someone pushing by, some drunk dude slamming into you, decorating your shirt in a soggy stain of freshly poured draft beer, offering little to no condolence as he shoves through the crowd trying to find his pack of friends situated somewhere within the mass of silhouetted heads gathered towards the center. Smaller venues are always the worst in these situations, as even in the chilly Spring air of San Francisco, these boxes are often sweltering, and you are left breathing in the stagnant, poorly ventilated air, heavy with sweat, tobacco vapor, and a healthy dose of body odor. At the quieter shows, there are always those who are constantly barking at each other despite their close proximity, which really just kills the whole atmosphere. White Denim’s sold out show at The Independent this past Wednesday shared many of these elements, but these less desirable aspects were overshadowed by a powerhouse set; a set that was so enthralling and invigorating that I didn’t even notice the annoyances that are the usual symptoms of a crowded house.
Fresh on the heels of the release of the band’s most recent LP Stiff – released just last week – Austin’s White Denim took charge of The Independent’s modest stage and basically tore the whole venue a new one. The line waiting to get into the venue wrapped around the corner of the block – up Divisadero Street and onto Grove Street – which did not bode well for my distaste for crowds upon first glance, but my anxieties were quelled once I was nestled into the audience and the set began. The foursome – vocalist/guitarist James Petralli, bassist Steve Terebecki, guitarist Jonathan Horne, and drummer Jeffrey Olson – were joined by a fifth member who clung to the right side of the stage, offering a slew of musical talents, including keys/organ and, on a few songs, some horn playing. Draped behind the band was a canvas featuring a ten-foot mural of a cactus, a homage to Stiff’s cover art, which portrays an array of cacti protruding up from a faceless female’s underpants. The bespectacled twosome in the foreground – Petralli and Terebecki – commanded the visual stage presence of the band, though the real winner of the night was the band’s communal spirit in the performance and sound of the music.
The set began with the opening track of Stiff, “Had 2 Know (Personal),” which immediately set the tone of the night with its frenzied guitars and Olson’s booming percussion. Petralli slid up to the microphone to deliver gutsy vocals as his fingers moved like coked-up spiders up and down the fret board of his guitar, his face at first slightly obscured by his glasses and trucker hat, though both would be eventually removed. The album’s second single (and second track) “Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)” swiftly followed suit, launching into the same sort of prog rock-fueled guitar play and jam-like style. It became clear that tracks lifted from Stiff would be the focus of the evening – as one would expect at a concert almost immediately following a recent release – all the more evident as White Denim blasted into two more tracks from the LP, “Brain” and heartfelt album closer “Thank You.”
The two White Denim sets I have seen prior to this one played out like long, elaborate songs, as the band took virtually no time between tracks, seamlessly bounding from one track to the next with little to no breaks in between. This show was no different, almost as if there was any breath between songs, the whole ether of the performance would be lost. The crowd was jubilant and consistently enticed, with their shadowy heads bouncing unceasingly along with the ever-changing rhythm of each passing song. White Denim’s light setup was also fittingly feverish, with beams shooting from honeycomb shaped LEDs of colors that never stayed the same for more than a second or two, soaring manically through and over the crowd, always perfectly matching the mood and tempo of each song.
In addition to the first four songs of the set, White Denim performed some other Stiff highlights, namely lead single “Holda You (I’m Psycho),” “Real Deal Mama,” and the tender “Take It Easy (Ever After Lasting Love),” which came closer to the end of the show. Older favorites dominated the middle of the set, including some tracks from 2013’s Corsicana Lemonade (“Limited By Stature,” “At Night In Dreams”) and 2011’s D (“Anvil Everything,” “River to Consider”). Some songs stemming from the band’s earliest releases also made their way into the mix, including “I Can Tell” from White Denim’s debut Workout Holiday and the explosive “I Start To Run” from the 2009 LP Fits (often regarded as the band’s breakout album). White Denim closed things out with a mini-medley of Corsicana Lemonade’s “Cheer Up/Blues Ending” and a deafening rendition of perhaps the band’s best-known early song, “Shake Shake Shake,” which quite literally shook the entire venue as both the band and the rowdy audience thrashed through the song’s thunderous conclusion.
White Denim’s performance at The Independent ranks as one of the best I’ve seen this year. The band’s studio sessions set a high bar for what its performance should be like, but White Denim has absolutely no problem meeting – and often exceeding – those expectations. The band’s drive, ballistic power, and breathless take on charging through material makes it quite the force to be reckoned with. There are not many who can quell the inebriated masses of a sold out Independent show, but White Denim caught us all under a spell, in such a way that nobody seemed to even notice that it was a hundred degrees in The Independent and that everyone was two inches away from each other. The sheer volume of the show matched with the band members’ natural abilities as musicians and performers was the perfect concoction for that setting, so if you do see White Denim on this tour (or ever), be prepared to fight the throngs of people who will inevitably be there… and be sure to bring your earplugs!
White Denim’s latest LP Stiff was released earlier this month and is now available on iTunes, via Downtown Records. White Denim is currently on tour in North America and have dates scheduled in the U.K. later this summer and into the fall. For more information and for tour dates visit the White Denim Facebook page.
Corey Bell
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