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| White Reaper |
The World's Best American Band
Back in May of 2015, I went over to Asbury Lanes on a rainy Wednesday night. Openers that night were Roy Orbitron and Glycerine Queens. The headliner was a rock band from Louisville, Kentucky called White Reaper. The street out in front of the Lanes was torn up. It was pouring. I think there may have been rain leaking through the ceiling in some spots. There were, maybe, a dozen people there who weren't in one of the bands.
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| White Reaper at Asbury Lanes in 2015 |
None of that stopped White Reaper from giving it everything they had. Early in the set, guitarist / vocalist Tony Esposito smacked bassist Sam Wilkerson in the nose with the headstock of his guitar. Wilkerson bled for the entire set and never slowed down. Ever since that night, I've been a fan.
On a rainy Wednesday night in June of 2019, White Reaper came back to Asbury park for a headlining set at Wonder Bar. Joining them for this one were Boston-born / Nashville-based, TWEN, and local faves and best CoolDad buddies, Dentist. Following the success of The World's Best American Band and some past stops in Asbury Park -- including a slot on one of the Front Bottoms' Champagne Jams, White Reaper played to considerably more than a dozen people. Wonder Bar packed out pretty nicely with the area in front of the stage taken up by fans dancing and singing along.
Dentist started things off; and, honestly, there isn't much more I can say about them at this point. For my money, they're absolutely one of the best and hardest working bands to come out of Asbury Park in the last five years or so. Their consistent touring has paid off not only by reaching new fans but also by allowing them to hone their chops as a live band. What looked like it might be a pretty lightly attended first set of the evening ended up drawing a good crowd from every nook and cranny of Wonder Bar to the stage.
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| Dentist |
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| Dentist |
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| Dentist |
TWEN are accompanying White Reaper on this tour. Founded by singer Jane Fitzsimmons and guitarist Ian Jones, they played on Wednesday as a four-piece. The band's sound is hard to define. It's dreamy and psychedelic, but it also has heaviness and complexity that keep things interesting. The live performance was impressive, and the entire band clearly enjoyed themselves onstage. On Thursday, TWEN announced that their debut album, Awestruck, would be out on 9/20 via Frenchkiss.
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| TWEN |
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| TWEN |
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| TWEN |
The crowd edged up towards the stage as White Reaper came out. The band's set included songs from an unannounced (I think), upcoming album like recent single "You Might Be Right" along with older selections like "B.T.K." (an audience request / audible) and a cover of Pretenders' "Brass in Pocket," a song from the era that clearly provides White Reaper with a good deal of inspiration. The intro to crowd favorite "Judy French" was an aborted / fake out cover of Brian Adams's "Summer of '69." At one point, guitarist Ryan Hater suggested that it might be ok if the crowd jumped around a little bit; and that set people bouncing for most of the set.
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| White Reaper |
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| White Reaper |
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| White Reaper |
White Reaper are heavily influenced by the era when rock and pop were essentially the same thing -- Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick. Their power-pop rock is loose in its feel and amazingly precise in its execution. The band play up the arena-sized rock theatrics, even in an intimate bar on the Shore.
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| Wonder Bar |
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| White Reaper |
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| White Reaper |
The White Reaper tour rolls on with a stop at Philadelphia's World Cafe Live on Saturday, 6/22. They'll be co-headlining that one with the like-minded Sheer Mag. Thin Lips join.
All the pics from Wednesday are up at Flickr.
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