White Stripes-ified

Last night P-dizzle and I went to the Greek Theatre @ UC Berkeley and saw the White Stripes. I was very impressed. First the milieu was great, it was a rather warm night here in the bay and the Greek Theatre is outside on top of a hill. It features a real deal Greek Backdrop (columns etc.) and the amphitheatre is the real-deal amphitheatre (like that bit in “Clash of the Titans”).

Now Jack White has recently been given slot 17 in the 100 greatest guitar players of all time (according to Rolling Stone). I was a bit surprised to see Jack upstage so many of my favorites. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Stripes, but #17? Well, after seeing him play live, he definitely deserves that slot. He’s playing that passionate style of bluesy rock that takes a basic three bar progression and shoves more tricks, bends, and riffs in those 12 little beats than just about anyone out there.

…AND he, in between these brief, brilliant flashes of improvisational wizardry, manages to play the rhythm guitar for his own solos. I was expecting off-stage guys to ‘help out’. Nope, Jack just did the best he could wearing two hats at the same time.

They also played a lot of songs from their first two albums De Stijl and their eponymous release. Jack also read aloud Johnny Cash’s “I Got Stripes” in memoriam to the recently-deceased singer.

They also performed a cover of their ideologically / sonically similar peer The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Fever to Tell.”

I can barely stomach the thought of what would happen if Jack White were to sire offspring by YYY’s Karen O. It would be a dirty sexin’ rockin’ Southern kid who’s hootin, hollerin’, and jumpin’ would resemble something unholy and unholy cool.

White closed with a variation of “The Boll Weevil Song:”

I said if anybody asks you people
Who sang you this song
You tell ’em its Jackie White
Hes just been here and gone
He’s just looking for a home

Epic.

Music