White Denim, Warehouse 34, Newcastle
- Written by Lee Hammond
For the second night running we find ourselves in the cavernous building that is Warehouse 34. This time, with completely different expectations, we arrive part way through Deathcrush’s set, an unknown prospect to us before this evening.
There seems to be an excessive amount of theatrics to cover a lack of musical talent. However, don’t get us wrong Deathcrush serve their purpose in warming up the crowd, but they’re just not to our taste. The simplistic tracks are relatively accessible but lack a great deal of musical talent.
White Denim, opening up with the awesomely trippy ‘Pretty Green,’ from new album Corsicana Lemonade proves a perfect start. They set the precedent with their high quality upbeat tracks early on, with title track ‘Corsicana Lemonade’ having a great Southern vibe that the crowd can’t help but dance to.
The band seem to hop around a variety of genres at first, ‘River To Consider’ providing another facet to this evening's set with a real Latin feel. To think that these are only first three songs and we’ve already covered a lot of musical ground in what can only be ten minutes is pretty impressive but having said that the band settles into their groove after this.
Playing tracks from across their back catalogue, those from the two latter albums D and Corsicana Lemonade are relied upon heavily. However, tracks like ‘I Start To Run’ still provoke huge crowd reaction. Fortunately the band haven’t deviated too far away from their original sound, and if anything, have just become consistently better.
The progression shows throughout the both the set and the band's sound as they blend tracks from Fits and Corsicana Lemonade. Those from the latter have a much crisper quality that really stands out, ‘At Night In Dreams’ is a true exponent of the bands growth. It not only provokes a massive crowd reaction, it also sounds amazing when put up against those earlier tracks that surround it in tonight’s set, making them look amateurish whilst ‘Drug’ is still a phenomenal track and live it really stands out.
White Denim cover an amazing amount of the musical landscape in a real short space of time. It’s a true pleasure to see a band with such a plethora of tracks of varying aesthetics, as opposed to just sticking to one monotonous sound. And this evening has proved yet again that this warehouse is an awesome place for phenomenal live music.
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