Well, it’s probably not permanent. However, I have had a constant ringing in my ears since 11:00 pm last night. Other than a My Morning Jacket show, this is the really the loudest concert I have ever heard. Of course, listening to Jack White play guitar that loud for two hours isn’t exactly a bad thing. It actually was quite great.
It’s no secret that I am not that big a fan of their newest album, “Consolers Of The Lonely”. Fortunately for me, the majority of songs they played of the album were the ones that I enjoy. They started the set with the title track, “Consoler Of The Lonely” and then proceeded right into “Hands”, from “Broken Boy Soldiers”. The band added a fifth stage member that played keyboards and he also played fiddle for “Old Enough”, one of my favorites from the new album. “Hold Up” and “The Switch & The Spur” were as annoying to me live as they are on the album and it was the only time during the show I was bored.
Of course, there were numerous highs. There was a strange medley of “Intimate Secretary”, “Cheap Sunglasses” by ZZ Top, and “Level”. During “Salute Your Solution”, there was a quick jump to “Who Do You Love”, then right back into “Salute Your Solution”. There was also a fair amount of trade-off of lead vocals by Jack and Brendan Benson.
The two show stoppers, not surprisingly, were largely featuring Jack White. Brendan is a good musician but it is tough to get out of Jack’s shadow. The last song prior to the encore was “Blue Veins” and it is one of the only Raconteurs songs that allows Jack to show off some guitar skills. It’s just a great bluesy-rock tune and he crushed it. Then, they closed the show with “Carolina Drama” and, while Jack played acoustic guitar, he starred during that song with his voice.
4 Comments
May 2, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Yeah they are quite loud. Blue Veins is a pretty fantastic song live. For a while they had released some of the British shows via CD. It would be nice if they did it again for this tour.
May 2, 2008 at 1:23 PM
This is the second time I have seen them live… and I have to say that Blue Viens is always incredible. But this time, it was ridiculous. It was the the dirtiest, most painful blues of the night – and I reveled in every single note.
May 2, 2008 at 4:52 PM
Jack White live is the greatest thing ever. I saw the White Stripes on the Elephant tour and he played ‘I Fought Pirhanas’ and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
May 29, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Saw them last night – can’t hear today.
The set was unbelievable and Jack gave me one of three apples he juggled outside before the show. Word.
His juggling skills are impressive.