Ahead of last weekend’s Forecastle Festival in Louisville, I obviously sampled music from all the bands I didn’t know, including White Reaper. I immediately loved the garage rock sound, so I added them to my list.
I had no idea at the time that White Reaper is from Louisville, that the band is still really young, and that their brand new album White Reaper Does It Again was streamed by NPR’s First Listen.
I also had no idea that White Reaper puts on the type of high-energy show that we love at this blog. It was one of the festival’s hottest sets, in every sense of the word.
There are obviously some good things going on in Louisville these days, with a DIY scene, a solid club scene, and some real pros helping get the music out there. Early in their set, the band gave a shoutout to sound engineer Kevin Ratterman of La La Land studio, who also worked on Murder By Death’s Big Dark Love and also (I think) ran sound for the MBD cavern show that I reviewed and photographed.
If you like garage rock and punk, I’m pretty sure you’ll be hearing White Reaper again.
Lots more photos after the jump: