Seraphina Lotkhamnga on September 13th, 2011

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As electro-indie pop outfit Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. walked out on stage Friday at a sold-out Troubadour, Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott toted their Detroit pride with their jackets and worked the crowd into a dancing frenzy from the moment they started their sports-game like intro. Working the stage as if they had a catalog that boasted more than one album, the duo has come along way from writing songs in Zott’s basement. With a live drummer in tow, high energy, flashing lights and bubbles celebrated their latest album, “It’s a Corporate World” – and an anniversary. “It’s one year ago today that we played our first show in L.A. Thank you so much for being here with us every time we play,” gushed Zott.

To cleverly match the album’s theme, their T-shirts read “Corporations are people, too” up on top and “Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., LLC” on the bottom. Epstein and Zott even set up a special “corporate lounge” on the stage-right wing for three fans who had earned “frequent flyer miles” by attending the most Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. shows. After Epstein jokingly revealed their phone bills all have been paid by Boost Mobile (to which Zott replied with “Oh ”¦ bad deal!”), the “lounge” dwellers were also provided the luxury of having free chilled drinks in front of their special seats.

“We’ve got some more surprises for you throughout the night,” added Epstein, and with that they went head first into their set of folk harmonies on uppers. Whether it was the two large blinking Js and Rs that framed the band’s erratic hybrid of cheerleader and rocker movements, the accessible tropical-beat and “Na-na-na-nah” of “Vocal Chords,” or the rampage of their “We Almost Lost Detroit” cover, the packed venue of fans gladly succumbed to a hypnotic groove of jumping bass lines, sparkling synth-lines and falsettos.

However, the most interesting tunes Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. pulled out for their set were the covers. Their take on the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” was daring. Yet, it quickly became one of the set’s highlights as the sparse guitar and bass pairing in the beginning verses took a turn for some shoegaze fervor toward the end, transforming their polite Midwestern boys set to an actual rock show for a few minutes.

Although Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. isn’t reinventing the wheel with their electronic-infused indie rock, the duo is indeed the band to see for a feel-good show complete with tongue-in-cheek attitude (which is not surprising for a band with such a name). Not taking themselves too seriously and most likely feeling lucky enough to focus on a good time, Epstein and Zott do a fine job drawing a line between playful and gimmicky.

And as the duo walked back out for an encore in neon glow in the dark jackets to play their cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and the opening track to their album, “Nothing But Our Love,” the pretentious- and hipster-free vibe was surprisingly endearing.

Portland quartet Radiation City opened.

Photos by Carl Pocket