If you associate any image with Dandy Warhols, it’s almost certainly the unzipping banana. It’s printed onto the band’s drumhead and the cover for the 2003 album Welcome to the Monkey House, named for the Kurt Vonnegut short story of the same name. The Warhols’ stage at the WOW Hall last night was covered in iconography, but there was only one banana.
This show on the night of Friday, Aug. 13 was the Warhols’ second stop in Eugene since last November.
Earlier this year, the Warhols, a Portland alt-rock staple, put out its tenth studio album, Distortland. Anyone is allowed to read into this however they please. Distortland features a single “Catcher in the Rye,” which indicates that they’re still mining influence from high school literature.

The stage boxes were tagged “T D W” and cloaked in decorative blankets. One blanket had a beaver illustration on it. This makes sense. The band hails from the Beaver State. But the two other blankets were of a skull and crossbones. This is more puzzling. In fact, skulls and crossbones were nearly ubiquitous on stage, also present with guitarist Peter Holström’s jewelry and drummer Brent DeBoer’s t-shirt. Holström regularly knelt down to fiddle with the mess of knobs and pedals at his feet, which revealed his steel skull ring.
It was a decidedly impersonal show, and the group has an almost hilarious anti-charisma, since I cannot recall if they ever addressed the audience for any real amount of time. Realistically they talked to one another more than the audience. Pauses between songs were filled with drone from Holström’s guitar or lead vocalist/guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor seizing the moment to cut his fingernails.

Byavoiding the chitchat, the Warhols for the most part surrendered its identity to its sound and the visual images surrounding them.
Their sound is still colossal, commanding and fun. The set was spanned the band’s 22-year career. At one juncture midway through the set, three of the four members abruptly trotted offstage (keyboardist Zia McCabe hopped off into the audience and beelined to the back of the WOW). This left lead Taylor-Taylor alone, during which time he did a marvelous solo version of “Every Day Should Be A Holiday.”
“This song is quickly becoming the potty break song, which I’m okay with,” he said.
The next time Taylor-Taylor spoke to the audience was near the end of the set, he was muddled and incoherent. His words – be they a sentimental thanks, an ode to the venue, to fans, a few words of gratitude – were totally obliterated under the noisy feedback from Holström fiddling with his pedals, which emitted a piercing, chopped squeal over Taylor-Taylor. Intentional or not, this was very funny.
Naturally the set also included “Bohemian Like You, “Not If You Were the Last Junkie On Earth” and “We Used to Be Friends,” which were indispensable and paid off handsomely. Some tracks from Distortland include “STYGGO” and “Pope Reverend Jim,” which harness the youthful synth-pop that embodies the best of the Warhols.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Keyboardist Zia McCabe during a Aug. 12 show at the WOW Hall in Eugene, Ore. (Emerson Malone/Emerald).