Photo by Andy Morell

There are so many dudes touring the country in straightforward rock ‘n’ roll bands that sometimes the best indicator of whether such a band is worth seeing simply comes down to how much fun they’re having. White Reaper is easily having more fun than 90 percent of touring rock ‘n’ roll bands. Admittedly, the show in their hometown of Louisville, Ky. that a handful of DCist music staffers saw back in September included people on roller skates and tossing around beach balls in a warehouse—something that certainly won’t be replicated at tonight’s show at DC9. However, the energy that would cause such a party permeates their self-titled debut EP, so don’t be too surprised if the crowd on 9th Street gets fired up and raucous.

Although our first thought upon seeing the White Reaper crowd was something along the lines of “These guys should tour with Diarrhea Planet,” that was more due to their onstage charisma. White Reaper’s songs are speedy and immediate, and while they also draw from classic rock, their riffs recall T-Rex more than Bruce Springsteen. The songs of theirs that stay embedded in your brain are songs like “Half Bad” for its earworm keyboard melody and “Cool,” a quick hooky blast that demonstrates that Jay Reatard’s legacy is still intact. In fact, their last time through the D.C. area was as the opening act for Deerhoof. We talked to keyboardist Ryan Hater about the inspiration for the band name, his favorite gas station pit stops, and touring with his best friends.

DCist: Where did the name White Reaper come from?

Ryan Hater: It’s named after a Halloween decoration. It’s a Grim Reaper that has a white cloak on. There’s not anything deep behind it.

DCist: I noticed that one of your promo photos is outside of a Wawa. That’s just very exciting for me because I have to travel a bit to get to one. What is your favorite thing to order there?

RH: Oh man. Dang. I don’t know. What’s your favorite thing to order at Wawa?

DCist: I’m a hoagie fan. As long as it’s hot and a sandwich, I probably like it.

RH: Yeah, I guess I’m probably the same. I haven’t been in awhile, so I don’t know. But there is a place—speaking of places that are far from my home—there’s a place called Braum’s. It’s not really similar but it’s also a place I can’t go to and that’s the one I’m always trying to go to. They’ve got burgers and milkshakes but it’s also like a small grocery store. It’s very interesting. It’s in the Oklahoma/Texas area. It’s pretty good.

DCist: Are there Wawas in Louisville?

RH: No. No. Definitely not.

DCist: So where was that photo taken?

RH: I think that was pretty early on, last spring some time, maybe even two falls ago. That was actually probably before I was even touring with the band. The band went from a two piece to a three piece to a four piece. Now, we’re pretty settled.

DCist: Yeah, I thought I remembered there being four of you when I saw your set at Cropped Out. Speaking of which, are there usually people at your hometown shows skating around and throwing things?

RH: That was kind of fun because it was in not a venue setting and bring your own beer and it was kind of rowdy. No. Not usually. Sometimes. Those were a lot of our friends up front, too, showing support and just getting crazy. And we had all just been hanging all day, just waiting. So, we were about ready to burst once we started playing so we kind of just got a little rowdy. It was fun. That was one of the funnest shows I can remember. Cropped Out is a really great festival. I love the guys that run that. They are some of the best dudes in town and I love supporting them. That show was rad and the whole festival was rad. I love doing that. That’s the second year in a row that we’ve played Cropped Out, which is cool because they usually don’t do repeats but they love us so we did it again.

DCist: Is there anything else that’s really cool about being a musician in Louisville that those of us on the East Coast wouldn’t know?

RH: It’s really diverse here. There’s not really one thing that’s popular. It’s not just rock ‘n’ roll or just hardcore or just indie, mathy stuff. Everybody’s different. Everybody’s doing their own different thing which is a blessing and a curse. But it’s super diverse and everyone’s been able to get along really well and support each other. That’s probably my favorite part about doing music in Louisville.

DCist: How often do you guys get to tour?

RH: We want to tour all the time but we’ve been on a break from touring for the past couple of months. Christmastime is a tough time to tour and we just got finished recording our debut record. So, we took a little time off to do that. We recorded it in Louisville.

DCist: Will you be playing some of those songs when you come through here?

RH: Oh yeah. We’ll be playing a ton of new stuff on this little five day trip that we’re going on. It’s going to be a ton of new stuff.

DCist: How different is it from the EP?

RH: It’s a little different. It’s a little more cohesive I guess. It’s good though. I think you’ll like it.

DCist: How long have you guys been a band?

RH: It’s kind of difficult because we’ve been writing these songs for years—for a long time. It takes awhile to get a band off the ground. So, the material’s been for awhile. We just really came together as a band in the last year and a half, probably.

DCist: Have you known each other for awhile?

RH: Oh yeah, we’ve known each other since we were kids. We’re like the best of friends. It’s fun.

DCist: And you guys tour together and are still the best of friends!

RH: I think it’s easier because we can just say anything to each other and no one’s going to get upset. We just give each other crap all the time but also, we would do anything for each other. We do get on each others’ nerves plenty, but we all just like to play shows and be on the road so as long as we’re doing that, we’re pretty happy.

DCist: Listening to you, I can get a sense of some of your influences and contemporaries, but who are some of the acts or people that influence you that listeners might not guess?

RH: We’re just a rock ‘n’ roll band. People like to call it what they want but we’re just a rock ‘n’ roll band. So, Ozzy Osbourne and classic rock—a lot of classic rock. We love that. We listen to a lot of metal. I don’t think that people would probably expect that from our music but we just love old ‘70s and ‘80s metal and listen to a ton of that. Like Metallica and Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne’s solo stuff and Black Sabbath. A lot of the stuff people compare us to, we do listen to a lot of or have listened to a lot of in the past. Our new stuff is pretty reminiscent of The Cars, T-Rex, and stuff like that.

DCist: Have you played in D.C. before?

RH: No, we played right outside of D.C. at a place called the State Theatre. We played there on our tour with Deerhoof last fall.

DCist: Do you think you’re going to have any time to hang out in D.C. while you’re here?

RH: How far is D.C. from Columbus? (Writer’s note: It’s roughly seven hours away.) That’s where we play before, so however much time allows us. And how far is it from New York?

DCist: About four and a half hours.

RH: Okay, so we’ll probably get to leave pretty late the day after, so we might get some time.

DCist: If you do get to hang around, is there anything that you’d think you’d want to do?

RH: I haven’t been to D.C. since my fifth grade field trip, so I really have no idea what kind of stuff there is to do but I’m always down to eat some food and check some stuff out. I would kind of like to do some touristy stuff, just some silly stuff, but I don’t know. D.C. is definitely super rich not just in the history of the country but also in the history of music and rock ‘n’ roll and definitely punk rock. It’s definitely the place, so I’m excited to get to play there.