Jack White fans united on Monday at the House of Blues to watch him take a beating to the drums with another new band.
Third time’s the charm for the “Jack of All Trades” Jack White and his newest super group effort, The Dead Weather. With the candy cane colors in storage, and a quick “be right back” to The Raconteurs, you can now find White situated behind a drum kit with this band. It is like the man can’t stand still. The blues brother and his riffraff crew drove to Dallas from the Austin City Limits Music Festival Monday night to tear apart the stage at the House of Blues.
With his most recent music experiment turning into another international success, White collaborates with his bassist from The Raconteurs, Jack Lawrence, Alison Mosshart from The Kills and Dean Fertita, a sometimes fifth Raconteur on tours and a member of Queens of the Stone Age. Mix all of these talented musicians together and add main ingredient White, and forms a big bad blues band: The Dead Weather.
Just like The Raconteurs, this band was formed on a whim and right after the end of a tour. White got his group quickly into a recording studio and spit out their thrashing, ground-stomping “Horehound” three weeks later. The big elephant in the room is Jack White on the drums. Known mostly as a front man, White actually began his musical career as a drummer, something obvious on his more than decent debut with the sticks on the band’s debut album.
White’s retreat to the drum kit did not go unnoticed by the crowd at the Monday night performance. Whether audience members were fans of the band, or just anything that Jack White does, The House of Blues transformed into the House of The Dead Weather that night.
Adding to the irony of the band name, the show took on a storm-like presence. The light show consisted of blue and black reflections off the walls of the venue, and blinding cracks of white to imitate lightning. This and the addition of White’s crackling and thundering of the drums made the audience feel like they were in the middle of a September hurricane down South.
Even though Alison Mosshart made a good stab at lead vocals, as well as Fertita in mimicking White’s guitar licks, the center of energy gravitated towards the back of the stage. Not leaving his wide-eyed fans without a glimpse of his “guitar hero” status, White stepped out from behind the mask of his drums to play and sing the most wicked blues ballad of their album, “Will There Be Enough Water.” His searing guitar solo and lyric shrieking temporarily satisfied the audience of his current absence in mind-blowing, front-man performances.
The Dead Weather’s ferocious encore of “I Cut Like a Buffalo” and “Treat Me Like Your Mother” took the concert to a completely different level. They blew out the sound system, figuratively, as well as my eardrums, literally, even though there were earplugs provided at the show. The band blew in, manhandled the stage and set the place on fire, leaving their audience with no remorse. When it was all over, you couldn’t help but feel like you had a few broken bones, or at least your breath was knocked out.
If you didn’t get the painful pleasure of seeing Jack White and The Dead Weather live, then there is the obvious source of the Internet and YouTube at the hands of your fast-typing fingers. But readers beware: No matter what good coverage you view online of any music, really, nothing compares to seeing someone live and supporting them with your presence, not just from behind the comforting shield of a computer.
