THE WHITE STRIPES
London Kentish Town Forum 6th December 2001
Hype does tend to put people off bands before they've given them a
chance, and this was the case with the White Stripes and me. Until one
day I was in a record shop which was playing 'I'm finding it hard to be
a gentleman' and I bought the album on the strength of that. 'White
Blood Cells' turned out to be pretty good, though I didn't consider it
"the best thing since punk" (or whatever the papers were saying), and
besides I later discovered that the earlier, critically-ignored album
'De Stijl' was more impressive.
So roll on the White Stripes live show, and an experience I can count
myself lucky to be attending as it sold out months ago and I only got a
ticket from a workmate a few hours before it started!
Just as expected, the White Stripes live are even rawer than on record.
The unembellished brother-sister duo of Jack (gtr/ vocals/ keys) and
Meg (drums) appear in their typical red and white clothes and launch
into a manic 'Fell In Love With a Girl'. The problem with hype is that
you don't want to believe it, and for the first fifteen minutes or so
I'm sceptical. They play a lot of 'White Blood Cells' and it sounds
like a garage band falling over, rougher than the recordings but not
necessarily better.
They shift away from their own stuff to cover Dolly Parton's 'Jolene',
and while it isn't as good as either the original or the Sisters of
Mercy version (!), it gives the performance the kick up the arse it
needed. Then they play 'Death Letter' which is a colossal garage-blues
tune which makes me realise what the fuss is about. The interplay
between Jack and Meg is extraordinary and it's hard to believe there
are just two people on stage. It's a great from here on, and I'll even
forgive their slightly shabby cover of Bob Dylan's 'Isis'. 'The Union
Forever', 'You're Pretty Good Looking', the theatrical 'I Think I Smell
a Rat' and recent B-side 'Rated X' are some of the many highlights, and
they even find time amongst the mayhem for the odd touch of Beatles
style whimsy like 'We are going to be friends'.
They're not great all the time, but they have some fantastic songs and
Jack White is one of the best guitarists I've seen in years. At worst
they're the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, at best they're a mix of the
Beatles White Album, Captain Beefheart's Safe as Milk, Jimi Hendrix
Experience and Led Zeppelin's debut. Anyone unimpressed by the records
should get to see them live before you write them off. They are too in
love with rock's past to really stake a claim to be the future of the
rock n roll, but in places at least they are fantastic.