Article and Photos by: Jason Robey

PHOENIX, AZ — The Crescent Ballroom was alive with the sounds of White Denim’s unique indie-rock sound on Monday night, as a near-capacity crowd danced and cheered the band through an energy-filled evening.

The night started with 45-minute set Sam Cohen and his band. Though Cohen’s band doesn’t officially have a name, he joked to the audience about calling the three-piece backing members either “Sex Triangle” or the “Sex Triangles,” whichever is funnier. Cohen showed off his incredible guitar talent, as well as an ear for interesting effects, as the group played through the bulk of his latest album, Cool It. Through the band’s use of ethereal synthesizers, spacious vocal effects and experimental guitar parts, the influence of artists like Pink Floyd and David Bowie were easy to hear in their set, which actually included Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes,” the lone cover of their show.

After a short break to change the stage, White Denim took the stage by storm, kicking off a 90-minute show with four straight songs from their new album, Stiff, opening with “Real Deal Mama.” By the end of the night, the band would play nearly every song on the record, in addition to several fan favorites from their earlier releases.

Vocalist / guitarist James Petralli was full of energy and drenched in sweat within the first few songs of their set, giving an incredible performance, taking very few breaks to catch his breath between songs. When he wasn’t showing off his voice on songs like “Holda You” and “Limited By Stature,” he was demonstrating his impressive guitar abilities, and penchant for tweaking his effect pedals to create interesting soundscapes on “Thank You” and the instrumental, “Sex Prayer.” The show also included two songs from Petralli’s recent solo album, released under the name Bop English, “Dani’s Blues (It Was Beyond Our Control)” and “Struck Matches.”

The rhythm section of bassist Steve Terebecki, drummer Jeffrey Olson and guitarist Jonathan Horne played off each other all evening, never missing a cue, as they often didn’t break between songs, sometimes for runs of three or four songs. Terebecki took the opportunity to switch instruments with touring keyboardist Mike St. Clair, to show his own love of manipulating knobs to twist sounds.

Following a one-two punch of “At Night In Dreams,” from their previous album Corsicana Lemonade, and “Mirror in Reverse,” from Stiff, the band took a short break, allowing the crowd to chant for an encore. They returned to the stage for the most subdued song of the night, an inspired and fun cover of Steely Dan’s “Peg.”

Catch White Denim on tour with Sam Cohen through May.

Setlist:

Real Deal Mama

Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)

There’s a Brain In My Head

Thank You

River to Consider

It’s Him

Sitting

Sex Prayer

Holda You (I’m Psycho)

Anvil Everything

I Start to Run

Limited By Stature

I Can Tell

Bess St.

Shake Shake Shake

(I’m the One) Big Big Fun

Dani’s Blues (It Was Beyond Our Control)

Struck Matches

At Night In Dreams

Mirror In Reverse

encore:

Peg