Last night, we added to the concert madness of late and saw the White Stripes (www.whitestripes.com) entertain a raucous Los Angeles crowd at the Greek Theater (www.greektheatrela.com) in Griffith Park. "A late night outing on a Tuesday?!!" one might say. "Oh yes." would be my reply. Being vaguely tired right now is well worth having witnessed one of the most unique and complex rock bands of the modern era. I'd have to say, however, that "rock" is probably a word that's best used in conjunction with various adjectives when describing the White Stripes.
Blues rock, rock country, Southern rock, hard rock, punk rock; there's just too many ways to describe their music. Even rock isn't necessarily correct because every now and then, Jack White will slip into either a bluegrass groove or a foiksy multi-layered ballad. It's not surprising in the least, because the enormous creativity displayed wasn't reserved for only the guitar. Moving from the six-string stick of dynamite, Mr. White is equally proficient at getting his point across comfortably behind a piano, a marimba, or even violently demolishing the renaissance mandolin.
The show itself, filled with a majority of new songs and a sprinkling of old favorites, was a showcase for their new album Get Behind Me, Satan. Although they did satisfy at the very end with monstrous renditions of "The Hardest Button to Button" and "Seven Nation Army," it was almost disappointing not to hear more of their older songs. That doesn't mean the show was any less entertaining as it's difficult to find any band willing to showcase what's new in their catalog. Does this make the band more daring than most? I'd think so.
Final thoughts: Jack White can shred. He played such a diverse amount of music on his guitar, I was pretty sure it'd catch on fire at any moment. Wailing away on every song, it was a sight I hadn't beheld since I saw Joe Satriani (www.satriani.com) melt his guitar live onstage. Would the White Stripes still be the White Stripes without Meg White? Certain times, I thought "yes," but towards the end, it's hard to imagine the drum kit without her pounding away. Simple beats serve to really magnify the intensity of the guitar and anyone else, playing anything else, wouldn't do the music justice.
Great show. Even better, it's a great lead-in to the main event that will be this Sunday.
1 comment:
You are so lucky to have seen the Stripes. They were over here about a month ago and I went to see them but only played for 20 minutes (security reasons, wind blowing etc)
Nice blog by the way.
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