The Dandy Warhols at the Opera House, September 7. Tickets: $20. Attendance: 500. Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
I want to like the dandy warhols. I want to get it. I want to feel it. But I just don’t. Sunday night’s sold-out gig at the Opera House brought out major fans who squooshed together while scattered horn-rimmed oddballs in funny shirts danced by themselves as though transported by musical ecstasy, limbs a-flailing.
No other bands were on the bill, so the Dandy Warhols were it – about two hours of ethereal pop and psychedelic drone. Nobody can argue that they don’t have some good tunes, but there certainly aren’t enough to fill all that stage time.
Playing in front of the proverbial psychedelic screen, the Warhols failed to exhibit any stage presence, and with all that moodiness you really do need a strong presence to sustain things. I could close my eyes and have the same, if not a better, experience. This is the type of music I can listen to but really don’t need to see.
Vocalist Courtney Taylor just oozes coolness, but he doesn’t actually do much more than stand there.
Similarly, drummer Brent DeBoer ‘s ratty ‘fro has 10 times more personality than he does.
The repeated, extensively drawn-out psychedelic drone moments left me feeling like a certain grit and spontaneity were missing. Everything they do just feels so researched.
The bands they so obviously try to emulate – 80s new wavers and space rockers – gave the world something new the Warhols mesh this whole experience into a quiet cacophony.
There was a moment when the screen switched to static and a strobe light came on, throwing an entirely new energy onto the stage and grabbing my attention. For a few minutes the show was exciting. Everything looks more exciting with a strobe light.
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