The Dead Weather, Rome, The Raconteurs, The White Stripes. As music fans I’m not going to tell you what music to like or dislike, but if you have never heard of any of the bands/ projects I just noted you need to check yourself. Jack White has been making music as a member of these entities for at least a decade. Most recently he has formed a new band, well actually two and put out his first solo offering called ‘Blunderbuss’. I’m sure most of you have this record already, but for those who do not it’s time to go to music church with one of the best artists making music today.
This record makes a lot of sense. I guess that’s a weird thing to say about Jack White and his music, but it does. He has explored the realm of rock duo shredding on drums and guitar with the White Stripes. He has formed a great blues/ rock and roll band in the Raconteurs and tried his hand at drums in The Dead Weather. He even created a film score to a film that doesn’t exist with Danger Mouse. With this new solo record a lot of it sounds like how Jack himself has wanted to sound for a while. A record all his own that sounds like it was one part written in his studio while experimenting with awesome sounds and one part written on his porch in Nashville, TN.
Jack is currently on tour with two bands. What? At his recent Webster Hall show which was streamed live on youtube (say thank you, because I worked my ass off on it) he played his first set with an all female band called The Peacocks and then closed out the show with an all male band called Los Buzzardos. I don’t think anyone has ever done that before and I’m sure there will be some skeptics, but having watched the show I think it worked perfectly. He weaved in and out of covers from his past bands and crushed the new material like he’d been playing it for years. My favorite song on the new record is called ‘Sixteen Saltines’ it is by far the most rocking compared to a tune like ‘Blunderbuss’.
He opened the show with my favorite White Stripes song called ‘Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground’.
In my opinion it was the best way to open when was about to be a two hour marathon of hits. His catalog is so complex and has so much depth with any different styles of music playing a piano tune and then rocking out to say ‘Seven Nation Army’ to close the show made total sense. The songs work and as a whole the album “Blunderbuss” makes so much musical sense to me. One track that stands out for me that I can’t get out of my head is called ‘Love Interruption’. On first listen I thought it was a simple, bubbly love song while instead it actually an incredibly dark and deep love song. It’s a stand out for me because melodically I think the song is genius and lyrically is on the level with some of Jack’s best material.
As I said before Jack closed the show with the punch of The Raconteurs ‘Carolina Drama’, ‘Seven Nation Army’, and a Leadbelly cover called ‘Goodnight Irene’. It was awesome to see that he still acknowledges the music that has got him to this point in his amazing career. Jack is currently touring with both The Peacocks and Los Buzzardos although each band is not playing every night of the tour. He is going to be at the Wiltern for two nights in LA at the end of this month. I’m pretty sure it sold out faster than it took me to write this sentence, but if you’re lucky enough to have tickets (I do, tee hee hee) then I’ll see you there. Tour dates are here if you want to have a look at where else you might be able to catch a glimpse of one of the truest troubadours of the 21st century. The set list below is what Jack has been playing most nights of the tour or at least an abbreviation of that. This set is from the Webster Hall show. He doesn’t play with a set list so its hard to tell what you are going to get. He hasn’t played many dates yet but this set list should give you an idea of why you should pay big money to see this live.
Set 1: The Peacocks
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
(The White Stripes song)
10. Take Me With You When You Go
Set 2: Los Buzzardos
As always here is the last track from Jack Whites most recent solo release. It’s incredible.
13 Take Me with You When You Go
For more on all things music check me out on twitter @stevewithmwl. I’ll be heading to more music festivals and events this summer and I want to meet some of the music without labels readers so hit me up!
By: Steve Rippin | Beat-Play Ambassador Los Angeles | @stevewithMWL|Music Without Labels & Beat-Play, LLC
