By: David Schultz
Photo from The Metro: Justin Ward (Live Music Blog)

In some etiquette book that no one has ever really read, there’s apparently a clause that says white after Labor Day is a fashion faux pas non pareil. Hailing from Austin, Texas, the T-shirt and jeans clad James Petralli, Steve Terebecki and Joshua Block don’t appear to have any use for such nonsense and are well on their way to making White Denim cool regardless of season. At this year’s SXSW, White Denim was one of the bands that seemed to be everywhere. Before trekking down to Austin, I had never heard of White Denim; after seeing them play a late night set at Club de Ville, I wanted to own everything they had ever recorded. Playing a late Sunday night showcase for the unemployed and irresponsible at New York City’s Mercury Lounge, White Denim confirmed that they might very well be the freshest, most exciting band to come around in quite some time.

Lining up along the front of stage, White Denim unleashed a potent, vibrant and intoxicating combination of punk, grunge, hardcore, classic rock and alternative rock. They distill the music down to its essential essence and let it erupt in a glorious and raucous succession of guitar riffs, bass lines and drum rolls. From the opening instrumental “Migration Wind,” the Austin based trio never slowed down. With the exception of minor equipment adjustments, they seamlessly and quickly weaved songs together in a fitful tapestry with the skill of the most polished jamband. Although the audience would have tolerated extended versions of rambunctious rave ups like “I Can Tell” and “Shake Shake Shake,” White Denim eased in and out of those and others, offering small tastes of any particular song rather than large helpings.

With infinite riffs at their fingertips, very few of White Denim’s songs have true hooks. Terebecki, who appears young enough that his two older brothers would have been denied drinks at the bar, plays a rumbling, knee shaking bass; Block could hardly remain seated throughout the set and even without a guitar Petralli can rock the house, as he did with his a capella break from “Dark Sided Computer Mouth.”

On Let’s Talk About It, their revelatory EP, and their recently released Exposion (more on this in the next couple weeks), White Denim exhibits the finesse and fine understanding of such art-rock bands as Television and The Talking Heads. At the Mercury Lounge, all pretenses were dropped: it was raw, it was brutal, it was uncultured, it was beautiful, it was fantastic and it was awesome. In no uncertain terms, it was everything rock and roll should be.

Labels: White Denim