The White Stripes Live in Concert!
When you watch those old B&W videos of the Beatles and see young girls screaming and crying it makes you wonder why they have such an animated reaction to a band. They threw themselves on each other and screamed so loud that the band could no longer tour at a certain point. Granted back when they played stadiums the Beatles used fewer amps than most bands use for a show at a local coffeeshop on a Thursday night, but the experience was so great the tears flowed and the screams deafened.
To me it is a wonder why The White Stripes don’t create that extreme of a reaction everywhere they play. That lump in your throat where you could burst into tears from the excitement, but you stop it, cuz that’s for the girls. Their show at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis last Saturday was just that good.
The White Stripes have been around for years now and are in their peak. Jack White has starred in a few movies, the most notable being the mandolin player in Cold Mountain. He produced, played on and co-wrote an album last summer with coal girl Loretta Lynn called Van Lear Rose. Joss Stone recorded his song, “Fell in love with a girl” to win a Grammy and Rose won the Grammy for best country album last year. He is something new that Rock has waited so long for, like a breath of fresh air into a stagnant musical landscape.
One recent article in the New Yorker talked about how Jack needs to lose Meg White as she is an average drummer at best. Watching them live makes you wonder how far up his back-end that writer must have been to make an assumption like that. Jack controls Meg on stage and there are times when they make love musically. Talking about her style on drums Jack has said that he fell in love with her childish play. The story goes that he was playing guitar in the attic and Meg came up. He asked her to play drums and she wanted to play Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream”. He was a drummer originally who learned the guitar, but he built upon her style. They were married at one point and he took her last name, White. In their new song, “I’m lonely (but I’m not that lonely yet)”, one has to wonder if their relationship is referred to today. In the song he sings, “And I love my sister, lord knows how I’ve missed her. She loves me, and she knows I won’t forget. And sometimes I get jealous of all her little pets, and I get lonely, but I ain’t that lonely yet.” That sister reference once made people think it was literal, but like the brotherhood of bands it is how he refers to her. Jack recently married a Brazilian supermodel, but Meg is his muse on stage and she stands sexy while playing and singing along.
When the show began they came out dressed in early 1800s French military uniforms. Jack launched on a mission with his hat tipped anonymously downward. He played several songs from his new album Get Behind Me Satan, but many more from the other four CDs they have released. He recorded the entire new album in his leaky home to stay indie with on an old 8-track.
From his first tune to the last the audience were on their feet singing along word for word. This was the second of a two day stint in Minneapolis. He decided for this tour to play classic venues for a more intimate experience. Both shows sold out the first few hours and solidified his standing as the new king of rock & roll. He is hard rock, a former punk rocker, but he knows how to use it. The problem today with many hard rock bands is that they don’t realize that fuzz tone power chords are like sugar and a hit song is like baking a cake. Sometimes you can make it too sweet we call that metal. Sometimes it is bland like a jam band or folk, but sometimes you have the perfect combination of ingredients for the most succulent tasting recipe you will ever hear. That is what the White Stripes have, the best cake you will ever listen to.
Jimi Hendrix talked about lighting his guitar on fire and smashing it all being gimmicks for the crowd. Jack White’s was taking photos of himself with a Polaroid camera and tossing them into the audience. A fight almost erupted in the row ahead of mine when a photo hit the ground instead of the many outstretched hands. He must have tossed 20 shots of himself and Meg making for an awesome gimmick of letting the crowd have a piece of his celebrity. It was both an indictment of the celebrity culture and a take on when bands borrow a person’s camera and take a photo from stage.
Jack White is shy on stage though. While talking to the audience he trailed off when mentioning a MN sports team for an obligatory crowd reaction. The crowd missed it and he went directly into song instead of repeating what he said.
Talking about being on stage, Jack has said that he has so much to do in a two-person band as opposed to bigger bands that he never gets to just sit back and enjoy the show. Where he lacks is connecting to the audience and one of the few things he did say was that his tea was cold from sitting there since the start of the show. Performance wise he has Elvis’s country swagger mixed with David Bowie or Lou Reed’s perfected images.
People must be jaded and reserved today to not erupt for The White Stripes like they did for the Beatles forty years ago. Maybe Jack isn’t mainstream enough, but he carries the torch for those who passed before him. He is authentic and the top songwriter in the country today. Like another Minnesotan who influenced the Beatles and every other band I have named here long ago… Bob Dylan…
Author: thefountainheads.com
