trying to learn the supercool talks

I guess last night could be described as a personal "2008 Concert Series Kickoff," though that would mean discounting the polka band at Essen Haus a couple weeks ago and the band at J.T. Whitney's last Saturday. Regardless, the bar has been set high. Though I was vaguely aware that the Walkmen were playing in January, I had confused the date and mistakenly thought I missed the show. No huge tragedy since, despite the greatness of Bows + Arrows and Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone, they weren't particularly memorable as openers for Modest Mouse (or was it Interpol?) summer of 2004. However, a couple Friday afternoon text messages set me straight and I resolved to brace the almost unbelievable cold for a night at the High Noon. I literally ran the three blocks from my car to the Saloon, and still the cold froze my tears, turned my jeans to cardboard, and choked the breath out of me. -18F Sucks. Ok, ok, the concert.

The Walkmen were decidedly *not* the evening's highlight. They didn't even come in second. But that's not because they sucked. In fact, they played a very strong set, drawing, as far as I could tell since I don't own the album, mostly from 2006's A Hundred Miles Off as well as their upcoming as-yet-untitled new release, with a few sprinklings of the previous two. Hamilton Leithauser has amazing control over his voice, even when pushing it to the limit of a gravelly scream, he never lost tone or tempo, and it dominated the room. However, the audience had already been totally floored by White Rabbits and the Walkmen's fairly uniform set soon lost steam. By the third song, much of the crowd was heading for the doors. Overall good, but once again unmemorable. Which brings me to the two openers- Austin's White Denim and NYC's White Rabbits, two bands I'd actually never even heard of.

I arrived just as White Denim was starting and was immediately impressed. The trio plays gritty, buzzy, blues-rock... kind of like Jon Spencer with stylish, punky undertones, but they rock with a youthful exuberance (particularly the rosy-cheeked bassist) that's undeniably charming. Now that I've found a couple tracks to help put names to songs, "I Can Tell" and "Dark Sided Computer Mouth" were particularly memorable, and actually sound almost equally great as recordings. Probably not since seeing Metric open for Broken Social Scene back in college have I so quickly fallen for a band that 30 minutes prior I'd known nothing about. Yet there was more greatness to come.

White Denim kicked ass and were a lot of fun, but White Rabbits are fucking pros. Six dudes, including two drummers with full kits, packed the smallish stage. Not a problem. They stayed perfectly together, maintaining a wonderful jangly, rolling rhythm over songs brimming with fantastic hooks. There is a bit of calypso/ska beat to a few songs, particularly "Navy Wives" and "March of the Camels," but the intense, and at times pleasantly histrionic vocals, reminded me more of Okkervil River or Ted Leo than The (English) Beat or Selector. And the pianist was tremendous. Unfortunately, the songs sounded WAAAAAYYY better live than off their album, Fort Nightly. Still very much worth a listen though.

Overall, a thoroughly awesome night.