I went to
the White Stripes side concert last Wednesday at the Hordern Pavilion, and was once again blown away at how good they are, it is always amazing to see them pull off the songs that you didn’t think they could pull off live. There were two opening acts, the first being
the Situations, a pop rock band from Auckland in New Zealand. They were alright but nothing really exiting, a high chraged mix of angsty suburburban songs, although the lead guitarist did pull of some interesting moves with a slide.
The Greenhornes, a three piece from Cincinnati, Ohio, were next. This band was a much better outfit, playing highly charged blues rock with groovy bass lines and cutting guitar riffs. It was soon apparent why the White Stripes had these guys come on tour with them. The bassist and the drummer along with pop rocker
Brendan Benson have also been recording an album with Jack White under the band name of the Raconteurs. It seems I’m going to have to invest some money into the Greenhornes.
Then a little while later, the masters came out and delivered a nonstop grunge-blues 2 hour performance. They started with
Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground and played hits such as The
Hardest Button To Button, My Doorbell and Hotel Yorba. They also played revved up version’s of
Bob Dylan’s
Love Sick,
Son House’s
Death Letter,
Dusty Springfield’s
I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself and
Leadbelly’s
De Ballit of De Boll Weevil as a finisher.
Blue Orchid and
Seven Nation Army were played last with the chorus riff of
Seven Nation Army being played with a technicolor strobe light swathing the audience in a red, white and black flashing light. The only disappointment was that
Ball and Biscuit and
Fell in Love with a Girl weren’t played, but with an ever changing set list you can’t always get what you want.
The performance was amazing with Jack White being able to control every song and then change to the next without warning. One man said to me on the night that he (Jack White) wasn’t
Jimi Hendrix, but he was probably closest thing we were going to get this decade. I had to agree.
