Drink This Potion and Go to Wonderland: White Rabbits Capture Full Attention as Opener in Milwaukee (1/18/08)

I went to see the Walkmen. Most people were there to see the Walkmen. I left after five songs by the Walkmen, because everything I needed to hear was done by the opener—White Rabbits. They rocked the Turner Ballroom in Milwaukee to such an extent that I felt like I needed nothing else from the evening.

They have the look of the Four Seasons—V-neck sweaters and blazers. You’d think this is going to be some kind of reserved, 50’s-type rock.

But there’s a whole extra drum set which is a clue, because sure enough, there’s nothing reserved about White Rabbits. The awe-inspiring double-drumming of Matt “The Duck” Clark and Jamie Levinson pounds the rhythm into your skull even as the melodies and vocals raise up pop rock energy in the way it should be. It’s the British Invasion come down to the years of Britrock while reaching back for the 50’s. But it is also the living dance/tribal club rhythms of !!! (Chk Chk Chk). It’s the Smiths, the Cinematics, Chris Isaak, Keane, and Muse, while having an AltCountry lilt at time along with saloon, Stephen Foster piano a la Squirrel Nut Zippers. During the whole set I was on my tiptoes trying to get up and into the sound, sensing I was watching something that is about to hit big.

The songs off of Fort Nightly are wholly developed, engrossing rhythms that punch it up while rising up rolling, rollicking, charismatic melodies. But then it tells you a lot about the band to see them launch into a rolling tom tom, punk chant version of Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm.” White Rabbits understand a diversity of rock ‘n’ roll history, so that their sound has wide-ranging elements melded into a cohesive, unique, fresh, historic form—even lending that to a cover of Dylan so that you realize that the folk singer was a punk waiting to blast out with smash down blues.

Drink this potion. Follow White Rabbits. Go to a Wonderland of sound from which you’ll never want to return.

Check out this video sneak peek of an upcoming documentary film about White Rabbits.


White Rabbits
Say Hey Records
Untitled White Rabbits Documentary