The Whigs and Social Distortion
Kalamazoo State Theatre
Sept. 12, 8 p.m.
$30 advance, $35 day of show
kazoostate.com, (269) 345-6500
The Nashville-based garage rock trio The Whigs pride themselves on their live performances. Accordingly, they're on the road pretty consistently, be it hitting the late night talk show circuit or sharing the stage with acts like MGMT, The Black Keys and Kings of Leon.
And it's that live energy that they wanted to bring to their latest studio album, Modern Creation.
"I think being a live touring band, we feel like that's something we're most known for and we'd like to capture," said Drummer Julian Dorio. "The studio is a different animal. It doesn't have to be treated like a live show. There's something to be said when three, four, five guys get in a room and play together. With the way records are made today, sometimes that gets removed from that process."
So they spent some time practicing their new material, booked a mere two weeks in the studio, and went in and recorded all the tracks live.
"We [had to be] completely prepared to show up and knock the songs out in a couple of takes," Dorio said. "We did want to leave room for spontaneity, but it wasn't the type of session where you go in and say, 'We'll see what happens.'"
The Whigs attribute the success of this new recording process in large part to Grammy Award-winning producer Jim Scott, who has worked with artists from Johnny Cash to Audioslave, for providing crucial direction in achieving the sound they were going for. It also doesn't hurt to practice a lot beforehand.
"This time we really worked at home on the songs and tried our best to be prepared," Dorio said. "We spent a lot of time in the practice space every day playing the songs ad nauseam. A few songs on the album are first takes."
Now they're on tour with old-school punk rockers Social Distortion, and couldn't be more thrilled about the opportunity.
"It's an honor," Dorio said. "These guys have been doing it for a long time. We look up to any band, especially Social Distortion, who can make a living or a career doing this and have fans for life, all the while making the music they want to make and are very proud of."
