The Dandy Warhols Are the Last Gasp of Gen X Cool

There was a moment right before the turn of the century when The Dandy Warhols seemed like they were the next big thing. A starry signing to a major label (Capitol), a bouncy hit (“Bohemian Like You”) appearing everywhere from a PlayStation game to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and a video directed by the iconic photographer David LaChapelle. They were even buddies with David Bowie.

And then that… didn’t happen. But the Portland-based band kept going, delivering their fuzzy mix of psych rock, shoegaze and power pop to the music lovers who appreciated catchy tunes with an extra icing of irony. On Thursday night, that included a Dallas stop at The Kessler Theater, downgraded from the larger Longhorn Ballroom.

There might not be enough Dandy fans in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to pack the latter, yet The Kessler was full of a smaller (yet no less passionate) crowd excited to see singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor, guitarist Peter Holmström, synth-bassist Zia McCabe and drummer Brent DeBoer do their thing.

But first came the psychedelic stylings of Kula Shaker, another band that had a late ’90s moment during the era of Britpop. Led by singer Crispian Mills and elevated by Jay Darlington’s trippy keyboard stylings, Kula played a full 17 songs to the Dandy’s 15, making them more of a co-headliner.

With a backdrop of a combo computer graphics/live liquid light show, their sitar-inflected set included nods to Hawkwind and Deep Purple before wrapping up with their biggest stateside song, the tambura-tinged “Govinda.”

Then it was time for the main event. The Dandy Warhols hewed close to a greatest hits set list and a tight running time—no mean feat for a group known for their two-hour-plus jamathons. In comparison to Kula’s vivid staging, the band’s set was incredibly pared back, with a nearly black stage and minimal blue and red hues illuminating the back of the band members—a perfect visual representation of their general too-cool-for-school attitude. Even the notoriously louche frontman Taylor-Taylor took a step back, never really striding forward to take his place in the spotlight.

Launching into “Ride” off their debut 1995 disc Dandys Rule Ok, one got the feeling that (despite their fervent fan base), The Dandy Warhols would be just fine playing for themselves. The vocals are mumbly, the lights are dim and you can’t really hear the lyrics, but what the band does deliver with expert ease can only be called a vibe. It’s their happening, but it actually doesn’t freak them out.

One doesn’t attend The Dandy Warhols for the songs; you do it for the pure vibrations, and tunes such as “You Were the Last High” hit you right in the sacrum (among other significant pressure points). The group had no problem drifting from the breathy “I Love You” to the pounding “I’d Like to Help You With Your Problem” (one of the few off their newest, heavier-tinged record Rockmaker, which came out last year). Their laissez-faire, offhand delivery and evident enjoyment of simply grooving allowed a crowd of middle-aged dads and past-their-prime hipsters to plug into an energizing circuit that has been difficult to access since the ’90s glory days of Deep Ellum.

By mid-set, the band hit their stride, delivering a boppier section of songs that included “Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth,” “Get Off” and “Bohemian Like You” with aplomb. After wrapping up the dreamy “Godless,” it seemed like this would go down as one of their best Dallas shows in recent memory, especially considering their last local performance at Ferris Wheelers in 2023 was rained out.

And what is most consistent about a Dandy show is that anything can happen. In this case, it was a technical issue affecting McCabe’s keyboard right at the finish line of the instrumental “Pete International Airport.”

“We’re so close!” she cried as a roadie attempted to fix the technical issue. “This is what happens when you play with 1970s equipment.” Promising, “This is gonna be so good,” she tinkered with the knobs while the rest of the band cooled their heels on stage. Finally, McCabe just made it work, wrapping up the night with “Boys Better” from 1997’s The Dandy Warhols Come Down with a shrug and an expert bang of her tambourine.

Like other members of their generation who have made a point of seeming like they don’t give a shit when they really care a lot, the Dandys just got on with it. Just like all other Gen Xers, as things glitch and fall apart, the band has learned how to adapt and pivot, rolling with the punches until the night is over. Perhaps not reaching the heights of superstardom, but never complaining, never explaining and never selling out.

See more photos from Thursday’s show: