The Districts new signees to Fat Possum records scored a great opening slot as the band that goes on stage to underground alt-country/jam band White Denim. Lead singer and guitarist Rob Grote announced it was the bands first time in Canada and they were excited to play. When I arrived at Horseshoe Tavern the area in front of the stage was completely empty but halfway through The Districts first song plenty of people gathered around. This was a band that had a sound and needed to get it out, there was no hesitation. With country tinged rock inspired by Aha Shake Heartbreak era Kings of Leon and the brashness and killer guitar playing inspired by The Bends era Radiohead makes for a formidable set of influences.
The old saying goes that if you want to be good at anything you need to do it for 10,000 hours. These kids not only are all individually talented musicians but their set was extremely tight. Several times during each song the tempo would change, from a slow burning sexy back beat, to a frantic thrash beat back to a straightforward rock line. They finished each song with a crazy psychedelic freak out with Grote throwing his body around shockingly never missing a note.
I knew their set would be interesting when during the first song guitarist Mark Larson broke a string. He kept the beat consistent making the songs easy to follow and dance to. Long Distance was the highlight of the set for me, with Grote breaking out a harmonica and played his guitar like he was Bob Dylan. Drummer Braden Lawrence was like a damn freight train beating the drums like it was the only thing keeping him alive. Lawrence must have broken every single stick he had because every song he seemed to change them. Their set finished with the fantastic Long Distance, which featured the guys stepping away from their mics and singing the hook acapella. I met them after their show where the signed my newly purchased LP and them were genuinely excited to meet people and hear that the crowd loved their set.
While White Denim was setting up their gear some guys right at the front of the stage were marveling at front man James Petralli’s pedal boards. He had a small armies worth of electricity running through about a dozen or so noise makers. The band came out and played a blistering 10+ minute opening number seemingly able to pack every genre of music that includes a guitar into it.
Every song seemed to have touches of every kind of music under the sun. You want rock, country and western, honkey tonk, grunge, psychedelic, funk, ska, and rhythm and blues? Yup they can play it all and melt your face off in the process. It seems like when the band is writing songs they have the ghosts of Duane Allman and Jerry Garcia standing over their shoulders encouraging them on.
They played the surf freak out song Shake Shake Shake that brought bassist Steven Terebecki to the forefront playing a killer bass line that marched forward causing everyone to thrash their heads up and down. They played several of their hits like All You Really Have To Do, which really got the crowd working. In between songs Petralli would talk to the crowd and make jokes with them. At one point asking for people to be aware of the five or so ladies in the crowd and to try not to elbow them, which got a big laugh. At one point some guy was faux heckling them and cracking jokes. Petralli asked the guy to point himself out cause he wanted to know what he looked like, when he couldn’t see him the guy shouted back that it was good because he was ugly anyways.
They played a bunch of songs off their newest album Corsicana Lemonade, including the song by the same title. All the band members are insanely talented and after playing together for so long they know when one another is in a groove and to let them shine. I went in not knowing a lot of their songs but it was impossible to not just rock out and enjoy seeing a band of this skill so close and at such a small venue. Later this year I will be attending Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee where the guys have played several times. They’ll do so again, albeit to a much larger crowd as these good old boys fit right in, in the Deep South, which I am very much looking forward to.
