It’s official. 31 year-old John Anthony Gillis, aka Jack White,
is the new guitar god. This gig rubber-stamped his undisputable class. Temporarily
sidelining ex-missus Meg of the White Stripes, Jack White’s ‘other’ project
continues to flourish.
America’s new ‘super group’ The Raconteurs threw down the gauntlet to their
peers at the Apollo in Manchester. Right now, there’s no-one to challenge them.
A chock-a-bloc Apollo witnessed the blockbusting band pull out all the stops
in a magnificent set of classic '70s style rock, with White dropping the
Stripes’ childlike aesthetic for amore mature sound. If anything, White and
co are going in the Led Zep direction.
With hit single Steady As She Goes and classic album Broken Boy
Soldiers in the bag, the quartet, expanded to a quintet for the night,
showed the music muscle they are now flexing. Co-writer and vocalist Brendon
Benson has also dumped his solo work to unite with White, bassist Jack
Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler.
Their relatively short set of just over 60 minutes, included all their debut
album tracks bar one, plus three newies, 5 On The 5, Christian Life
and Bang Bang, showing there’s much more in their songwriting arsenal.
Coming on in darkness to the opening sequence of Level, the crowd
raised the atmosphere, soon followed by his trademark wiry picks.
In truth, it’s Jack they were here to see. Without him, there would be no
Raconteurs. Nevertheless, for a man with such a reputation with the White
Stripes, there was no attempt to hog the limelight, though he did having his
odd showboating moments as he fronted the stage for Yellow Sun.
For the most part, he was happy to blend in with his new-found band mates, he
proved a worthy team player. Raucous Hands soon followed segued by a
monstrous rocker 5 On The 5 with screaming solos by White. Eventually
an introduction, "Are you out there? You’re so far away. Good evening,
we’re the Raconteurs from Nashville Tennessee… I’m Brendon Benson, thanks
for having us."
Thereafter, more album tracks: a genteel acoustic-led Together showcased
Benson and White’s vocal ranges as did new song Christian Life, whereas a
bluesy Store Bought Bones (yes, White likes to collect ancient human
bones) was more of a traditional exploratory jam a la Led Zeppelin.
A three song encore brought, "Thanks for having us Manchester, it’s good
to see you again, those of you I can see", followed by Intimate
Secretary, Steady As She Goes which predictably raised the roof, closing
a glorious night for rock’s future with a pulsating Broken Boy Soldiers.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
A chock-a-bloc Apollo witnessed the blockbusting band pull out all the stops
in a magnificent set of classic '70s style rock, with White dropping the
Stripes’ childlike aesthetic for amore mature sound. If anything, White and
co are going in the Led Zep direction.
In truth, it’s Jack they were here to see. Without him, there would be no
Raconteurs. Nevertheless, for a man with such a reputation with the White
Stripes, there was no attempt to hog the limelight, though he did having his
odd showboating moments as he fronted the stage for Yellow Sun.
Thereafter, more album tracks: a genteel acoustic-led Together showcased
Benson and White’s vocal ranges as did new song Christian Life, whereas a
bluesy Store Bought Bones (yes, White likes to collect ancient human
bones) was more of a traditional exploratory jam a la Led Zeppelin.