LIVE: Dredg at the Highline Ballroom in NYC

Dredg, a California experimental hard rock band, may not be a household name, but they had no trouble packing an audience into New York’s Highline Ballroom last Sunday night.

The venue was filled with a devoted following, who lapped up the post-rock guitar noise that crept over solid grooves and spoken word samples that hung in the air above passages of white noise. Fans cheered wildly for songs off the yet-to-be-released album The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion, as if they’d heard them a thousand times. New songs “Saviour” and “Ireland” got great receptions and, while not being radically different from older material, seem to share a common aesthetic that’s perhaps best understood in the context of the whole album.

The band’s versatile instrumentation was evident on stage and gave them a wide palette of sounds. Singer Gavin Hayes used a lap steel guitar to good effect, and when he picked up a regular electric for set closer “Horizon,” it added a whole other dimension to the song. Guitarist Mark Engles filled the space when needed, producing both clouds of chaos and pinpoint melodic lines, while always leaving just enough room for vocals. Both bassist Drew Roulette and drummer Dino Campanella turned to keyboards every now and then, adding beautiful textures to the sound.

Having recently parted ways with Interscope, the band is set to release their new album June 9 on their own label Ohlone Records. On the strength of the audience’s reception to the new material, along with similar online praise, they should have no trouble continuing on their own terms.

Click here for their entire tour schedule.