Hot show from the archives . This was a two night run, but was only able to make the last night.
Show Date: September 17, 2008
This is going to be too long but I don’t care. I love nights like this where you go to a show and are literally frothing at the mouth for a bootleg of what you’ve just heard. I’ve begun to dislike folks who make every concert sound like a transcendent experience that transports them beyond their corporeal being. But, yeah, paint me with the fucking brush baby.
Tonight was the equivalent of when Prince delivers and just walks off the fucking stage like, yeah don’t need applause because I know I just tore it up.
Went old school tonight. Met up with an old hometown buddy. Haven’t seen in ages. Last went to a show with him in 1996-White Zombie. Egads. We met at a bar in a part of town that could only be described as dirty.
Me: “You know when I circled the block and saw the adult theater, a drug bust, and a hooker I thought you had lost your mind. But this place is actually pretty cool.”
Friend: “They call it Shanghai Tunnel because it was where they used to hold down kidnapped Asians before sending them back to China for slavery”
Me: ” Oh bullshit”
Friend: “Serious”
Me “Charming.
Me: Pound that, I don’t want to miss The Kills”.
Friend: “I thought The Kills were the main act? They’re better.”
Me: “You’re serious?”
And not that I blame the sentiment. I know on alot of levels that Jack White is viewed with a wide lens encompassing conclusions that he is everything from a carnival barker, to sideshow, or a genius.
–>The Roseland. Old theater. GA. Shaped like a U. Open floor. Seats in the mezz, 21+ on the up only. We get early and grab dead center seats on the aisle and stockpile booze. Guy behind us is a tattoo artist.
–>The Kills. Baby. I am a fan of The Kills. VV (female-vox/guitar) and Hotel (male-lead guitar/vox) are the act that is often (unfairly) compared to the White Stripes. VV comes out, waves to the crowd with a pack of cigs. Already smoking. “URA Fever” starts blasting. VV is dressed with the attitude Axl always wanted. Flannel. Plain grey T. Peg Jeans. A hundred million hoop bracelets. Razor thin. Fucking menacing. Back to URA: Place you got to offer
–>Raconteurs. I saw them in April. They played here last night, I wish my life had aligned to see that. No regrets. Tonight is tonight. They take the stage, all of them get on the drum riser and play like they were jamming the end of a song from last night and then launch into “Salute Your Solution”. Second song was “Level” and that is when I knew I was witnessing a band that has transitioned from act to a real “band”. Saw them in April, and Level was a spot on dupe of the album with the hook of being completely synchronized on all notes from all instruments through most of it. Tonight, Benson was waling a solo over most of the song that just worked. Around the fifth song is when the magic started. They started as “Intimate Secretary” and used that as replacement for the first third of “Consolers Of The Lonely” and launched into that as a pseudo medley, before seamlessly moving into the rollicking sing along “Hold Up”
“Broken Boy Soldier”
Yeah. I. am . not. kidding. This song seemed kinda cheesy on the album. Tonight they took the lead guitar riff and used that as the base of the whole song. Backbone of drums, base, and rhythm guitar was that riff…simplistic as hell. Translated the song from this goofy middle eastern knockoff to “In A Gadda Da Vida” type HEAVY. Grooving on that, Jack stays away from the vocal effect mic. Sings it normal and then into the guitar solo we go, rather than that silly sitar-y shit on the album, Benson starts hitting a straight out blues solo, crazy calm, like an assassin, just waling….wailing…wailing…Jack is faded to the back and grinding his guitar into the amp with his pelvis like Jimi and screaming from a distance into his effect mic…sounds like he is a 100 miles away…Jack moves into machine gun short riffs…wailing wailing from Benson blues solo getting a little more hard rock..wailing…machine guns, Jack is slamming now his guitar neck into the amp and we are now getting vox straight into the mic–machine gun, wailing, vox, blasting. They finish the song with the same verses from the opening. Amazing. Song is like 3:00 on the album, and now feels completely unfinished to me. I really have no desire to hear the recorded version again.
I’m spent. The rest of the night was delirious. 4 song encore that finished with a Pink Floydish sendoff of “Carolina Drama”. Completely different from the version I hear in April. The White Stripes can stay dead. Give me another Rac album. But more important, get me another Rac tour. I’m jonesing already. No writeup can do justice to what I saw tonight. End of story.
