After 30 years, psychedelic rock veterans The Dandy Warhols are still going strong. They are currently on tour in the US and made a stop at Washington, DC’s historic Howard Theatre Tuesday night.
Accompanying the Dandy Warhols on this tour are Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor. From Detroit, the trio (Sean Morrow, Eric Oppitz, and Rick Sawoscinski) carry the torch of psychedelic rock, with music even being featured on episodes of the Showtime series Shameless and in the film One Fast Move.
For 40 minutes, SOYSV played for the still-assembling, Tuesday night audience at the Howard Theatre. The chill crowd was taken along a cosmic journey of psychedelic melodies and fuzzy guitar riffs. The band performed in near darkness, with only some backlighting and video screens illuminating the trio.
Hailing from Portland, Oregon, The Dandy Warhols (currently Courtney Taylor-Taylor, Zia McCabe, Peter Holmström, and Brent DeBoer) orginally got together in 1994. They got a record deal after their very first show, and their debut album, Dandys Rule OK, was released in 1995. Of course, for the young folks in the audience, the name is a play on the pop artist Andy Warhol.
As someone who is old enough to remember the 1990s, I observed that The Dandy Warhols never really reached the peaks of fame like bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or others that came to be associated with that era. But that certainly didn’t seem to hurt the band at all—it’s given them the freedom to do their own thing. Over the years, the Warhols have worked with people like legendary producer Nile Rodgers and Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes. They’ve also done such things as submit a cover of the Everly Brothers “All I Have to Do Is Dream” to a video game soundtrack.
With a catalog spanning three decades, there is plenty of material to pull from for a setlist. Tuesday night offered fans a mix of the new and the vintage. The debut album, Dandys Rule OK, weighed heavily on the early part of the show—including songs like “Ride” and “The Dandy Warhols TV Theme Song.” This bumped up against the Velvet Underground-ish “I Love You” and the bouncy but oh so appropriate for our times “Summer of Hate.” “Summer of Hate” is from 2024’s ROCKMAKER, an album the Warhols describe as being motivated by the desire to make a metal record. It’s fun!
In 2025, the band presents as a veteran, well-oiled machine, the way people do when they’ve made music together for decades. On stage, the band places themselves in a semi-circle, with Courtney Taylor-Taylor positioned next to drummer Brent DeBoer. It’s a visual statement, one that indicates the band members see themselves as equals. That, along with the chill, Tuesday night crowd, made for a laid back, engaging environment. The most jarring thing about the production were the lights—the early portion of the show relied heavily on white strobe lights, something that could be disorienting for some people and made photography a challenge.
The Dandy Warhols finish up their current US tour on May 18 at New York’s Mercury Lounge. They will spend July touring Europe.
SISTERS OF YOUR SUNSHINE VAPOR
