White Stripes
All too often these days the alternative music press go completely bananas for the next "next big thing" before the previous "next big thing" have even found their feet. Gay Dad's album didn't live up to the success that the first single warranted. Terris didn't even have any songs. The Strokes have hinted at The Velvet Underground's 70's New York-cool, but so far have failed to live up to the hype. Now the next, next, next big thing (at the last count) is doing the rounds in the UK. Will they be another flash in the pan or can The White Stripes back up appearances on "Later..." and "The Cut" amongst others with a scintillating live set? I went to investigate.
Let's get things straight first - The White Stripes are not brand new - they already have three albums under their belt. Jack (twisted guitars and demented vocals) and Meg White (erratic drums and sugarcoated vocals), a brother and sister (or is that estranged husband and wife?) combo, hailing from Detroit are surrounded by much mysteriousness. Whether it's the brother and sister/husband and wife thing; the obsession with all things red and white or the ragged punchy stop-start rawk tunes - it's bound to generate interest.
The support act is The Von Bondies - from the same city and very much in the same groove as The Stripes. Considering that the guitarist is Jack's girlfriend, one would be forgiven for assuming that this is the only reason they are touring together and nothing to do with musical talent. As it turns out, The Bondies have talent in abundance and serve as a good warm-up, leaving the crowd ready for the talented two.
The White Stripes take the stage and from the outset, it's a messed up, mashed up concoction of The Velvets, The Doors, The Stooges, The Stones, Led Zep, Hendrix and much more. They are an anomaly and very much hit and miss, but at the same time they are fantastic. After a weak opening, people really sit up and take notice with a rather deranged cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene", Jack taking his pick from the three microphones positioned around him. After this the general standard of the songs is very up and down until crowd favourites "I think I Smell a Rat" and "You're Pretty Good Looking". Other tunes that stand out are "The Big Three Killed my Baby" and recent single "Hotel Yorba" - overall they improve more and more towards the end of the set and leave us with a rousing encore of "Hello Operator". The crowd wants more still, but it's not forthcoming. They have played about 20 songs - some are very good and some appear as mere doodles on the face of the blues, but one thing's for sure they will be around for a while yet.
All in all The Von Bondies seem much more accessible than their counterparts. The thing with The Stripes is that their music is so stop-start that it becomes hard to tell when one song ends and the next begins. The schizophrenic drums and punctuated guitar riffs make the whole arrangement difficult to decipher for moshers and foot-tappers alike. But that's not the point - the point is that no-one else around at this moment in time is doing anything remotely like this and that is a thing that should at least be respected, if not cherished.
Related pages
Official White Stripes Website
It's very red and white.
