Five years after forming, guitarist Max Kakacek and drummer Julien Ehrlich, known as the indie-rock band Whitney, made their first appearance in Tampa on Thursday night at Orpheum in Ybor City.
Fresh off the release of its 2019 album Forever Turned Around, the duo performed some of its biggest hits from both older and newer albums.
Coming from the breakup of a former band and hailing from Chicago, Kakacek and Ehrlich got their start as Whitney in 2015 before a debut album, Light Upon the Lake being, arrived in 2016. From the success of its debut album, Whitney traveled across the globe performing on almost every continent and growing the duo’s partnership.
Opening for Whitney was the all-female, four-member band Chai (stylized “CHAI”), coming from Nagoya, Japan. After forming back in 2012, the quartet—which put on a lively show on Thursday, with dancing, cheering, and crazy outfits—eventually released its debut studio album, Pink, in 2017. The ladies put on a lively show for all with dancing, cheering, and crazy outfits, electrifying the crowd for the arrival of the main show.
After setting up the stage, and handling a small technical difficulty, Ehrlich took to his drums front and center. Sitting right up against the front edge of the stage, Ehrlich remained in his position under the red and purple lights all night while releasing a cacophony of drums and vocals.
“It’s nice to feel some cool air; we just came from Miami”, said Ehrlich as he greeted the crowd, soon moving straight into their performance with Kakacek off to his right side on guitar. Backed by keyboardist Malcolm Brown, guitarist Print Choteau, bassist Josiah Marshall, and trumpeter Will Miller, the group opened its performance with “Polly” from its debut album.
Hiding away from the encroaching tornado warnings, the fans left their worries at the door and settled in for the show. The young crowd, consisting of ages ranging from the late teens to the mid-30s, kept on its feet the entire night, with audience members’ gazes locked to Ehrlich on his drums, only diverting when Miller produced drawn out notes and incredible solos on his trumpet.
“This next song is about our neighbor in an apartment we lived in. He used to visit us a lot, so we wrote it like a love song”, said Ehrlich right before Marshall began strumming the opening notes to “Dave’s Song” on his bass.
As the night went on, fans would occasionally shout out questions to the band, with Ehrlich happily answering. “This next song is called ‘Day & Night’”, said Ehrlich.
“By Kid Cudi!?,” shouted an enthusiastic and comedic fan. “Nope. Not by Kid Cudi. We wrote this one ourselves believe it or not,” Ehrlich retorted in a humorous manner.
Ehrlich and company openly stated that the band would step off stage for “a few minutes, and then obviously come back for an encore.” Opening its encore, the group performed a cover of Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights”, a song it’s been known to cover since forming in 2015, and featured on their demo album. The band closed out the show with a performance of “No Woman” from Whitney’s debut album and “Friend of Mine'' from its latest effort.
Leaving fans both happy and begging for more, the band promised to come back soon and invited everyone out to a neighboring bar for a friendly game of pool. Whitney’s first performance in Tampa was one to remember, and we can’t wait to see the band back in town grooving it up again.
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This article appears in Feb 6-13, 2020.