The posted
capacity of Kansas City’s Riot Room is 240.
In the
early days of the new century Portland’s Dandy Warhols looked like the last of
the rock stars. Their best record, Thirteen
Tales from Urban Bohemia (2000), earned critical plaudits and scored a hit
of sorts with “Bohemian Like You,” while its successor, Welcome to the Monkey House, further expanded their audience.
The
underground success of the 2004 documentary Dig,
an unsparing look at the love/hate relationship between the band and their
mentor-antagonists The Brian Jonestown Massacre, narrated by the Warhol’s
singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor, also increased the band’s profile.
Since then
the band has been marginalized by critics and seen its audience contract some.
Earlier trips to the area included stops at larger venues like Lawrence’s
Granada Theater and Liberty Hall.
Still, the
audience that packed the Riot Room on Friday night was enthusiastic and
receptive. Live, the Warhols continue to pack a punch. Their performance on
Friday night was tight, at once driving and relaxed. Built from the pieces of
1968’s ultimate jam – equal parts Velvet Underground, “Satanic Majesties”
Stones, and early Syd Barrett vintage Pink Floyd, and super modified by jolts
of everything from Hawkwind and Spacemen 3 to Chic, the group’s seductive
grooves and pop built tunes hold up well.
Most of
those in attendance were clearly fans, singing along and dancing, which took
commitment since the club felt like a stuffed phone booth inside of a sauna.
Front man Courtney Taylor-Taylor made frequent references to “freezing.” The
Dandy Warhols have always oozed irony, so go figure.
He also
flattered the Kansas City audience as he noted the positive response to their
cover of a Desmond Dekker song (“Intensified”), suggesting that previous dates
on the tours had featured less astute fans.
Dekker’s “Intensified
“ was good fun - not exactly ska, but certainly a nice change of pace from the
band’s sparkling drone. Audience favorites from Monkey House, like “We Used to be Friends” kept the energy level
high, but the fans saved their full rock out fervor for the trio of songs from Thirteen Tales, that climaxed the show -
the band’s best-known song, the Stones-inspired “Bohemian Like You,” drawing the
most enthusiastic reaction.
Zia McCabe’s
keyboard playing is both bed of drone and chief instrumental voice.
Taylor-Taylor and lead guitarist Peter Hellstrom, the band’s founders in 1994,
lock in to a distinctive psych-groove with drummer Brent DeBoer, who in
addition to driving the band is Taylor-Taylor’s chief harmony foil.
The band’s
set list called for more songs than the band ultimately performed, the
magisterial “Godless,” and “Boys Better,” an early favorite from the Dandy Warhols Come Down were omitted. I
guess Mr. Taylor-Taylor really was freezing. The band played “Get Off” and did
not return.
San
Francisco’s Warlocks, veterans trafficking in Warhols-complementary
garage-psych and bluesy shoegaze, opened the show. The band was tight, assured
and well received by the audience.
