White Denim roars through hour-long set at Echo

Seraphina Lotkhamnga on
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For those who have been pining for the whirlwind of Austin’s music scene since SXSW, White Denim quickly satisfied those cravings when they arrived at the Echo in Los Angeles on Wednesday and brought their raw, uninhibited, Southern-tinged rock along with them.

The trio-turned-quartet (with the addition of guitarist Austin Jenkins) is still going strong with their fifth full-length, but even with the release of “D,” they still refuse to be pinned down to one or two genres. Playing nearly every song off the new album, their obtuse approach to songwriting and live performances persevered as they ricocheted from psychedelic rock to soul to blues and more.

Although White Denim isn’t really one to banter during a set, the riveting guitars, the chaotic drumming and jumping bass lines said plenty, from the moment they dived into their first song, “It’s Him.” The foursome of James Petralli, Joshua Block, Steve Terebeck would be rich if they had the franchise on hyphens – but you could call their psych-punk-garage-prog rock “jumbled” and it’d be a compliment. As furious as the quartet is, they retain a certain elegance.

Songs ran into one after another, which barely left any time for the crowd to catch its breath, let alone applaud, but White Denim’s jamming is nirvana for any music nerd geeking out on top of his or her ADD. Frontman Petralli became a chameleon as his vocals transitioned from gritty growls to deep, soulful belting and even light falsetto.

No, White Denim isn’t chatty when it comes to performances, but they are musicians who roar with meaty arrangements that pulsate throughout a packed room. There were a couple of resting periods in between the raucous sessions, such as the moment prior to slowing it down for “Street Joy,” and the second time when Patralli jokingly acknowledged the fan who had the audacity to make the stage his bed for about half an hour.

However, even with a body lying next to their pedals (the bassist’s, in particular), the rock quartet pummeled through new songs like they had been playing them for years. Of course, they didn’t finish their hour-long set without playing some old tracks such as “Shake Shake Shake.” White Denim also came back for an encore to play “Mess Your Hair Up,” but nothing about the end of this show seemed messy.

L.A. bands Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits and the Allah Las opened the night.