The White Stripes | Opera House | November 21, 2005
By PHOENIX STAFF | October 26, 2006
Review: The White Stripes at the Opera House. By Matt Ashare
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Getting in front of Satan: The White Stripes |
A refurbished Opera House for a refurbished White Stripes. Yeah, Jack and Meg White had done their Zeppelin garage blooze at the Middle East Downstairs and got blown off the stage by an opening band (the Gossip). But this is one band who really benefited from their step up from the no-budget Sympathy for the Record Industry to a real, honest-to goodness-label in V2. There were all kinds of fancy, color-coordinated red-and-white instruments on stage, including a huge, expensive kettle drum, and an even more pricey marimba. But, really, it was all still about the chemistry between Jack’s guitar and Meg’s drums, and her ability, no matter how rudimentary her beats, to follow his every move as he stretched out the solos into long, expressive, string-bending excursions. In the spaces between the riffs and slamming beats, you could hear and see a rock-and-roll band reclaiming rock’s past in the blues, and bringing a little theater back into the process — a sense of theater that grunge, with its flannel and torn jeans, destroyed for a time. |
Were you there? Wish you were? Seen better? Tell us about it below.
Related:
Gotta go, The Raconteurs, Sound and silence, More 
- Gotta go
Break out your best red-and-white ensemble: the White Stripes are coming to town.
- The Raconteurs
Jack White’s other band — the White Stripes — may be known for their bass-less, three-drums-and-six-strings set-up. But the truth is, he’s been using all kinds of instrumentation all along.
- Sound and silence
The RISD exhibit reminds us that filmmakers at the forefront of the medium have been consistently drawn to the novelty of the medium.
- Icky stunt
For a band as image-conscious as the White Stripes, it’s notable how little they’ve given their fans in the way of ideology.
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Video of WFNX's top 101 songs of the decade
- Maxed-out minimalists
One busty female drummer, one spitfire guitarist, and a deep fondness for raw Motor City rawk reduced to its grittiest garage-punk essence.
- Beyond the White Stripes
There’s a blues and old-school R&B resurgence rumbling in the indie-music underground, and it goes well beyond the icky thump of the White Stripes.
- Indie gets the blues
White rockers generally come by the blues one of two ways.
- Keys to our hearts
"I’ve never been someone that goes to the ‘it’ places and does the ‘it’ things and goes to the ‘it’ restaurant and go to the ‘it’ club. I like more off-the-beaten-path kind of things."
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Videos of the 101 most requested songs on WFNX in 2009
- Less
Topics:
Live Reviews
, The White Stripes, Meg White, Rage Against The Machine
