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| Latest Gig Reviews |
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| | Half Man Half Biscuit | | "17th April 2008 - Coronation Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria" (More) |
| | Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark | | "13th May 2007 - Olympia Theater, Dublin" (More) |
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| | Paul Weller, The Charlatans, Ian Brown, Echo and the Bunnyman, Noel Gallagher | | "30th March 2007 - MEN Arena Manchester" (More) | |
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| The White Stripes, The Greenhornes |
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| Empress Ballroom, Blackpool - 11th November 2005 |
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I love this venue, not just because it's only 10 minutes down the road, but also because of the décor and feeling of intimacy in what is a decent sized venue. It is also proportionally wider & shorter than a lot of other venues, which means you are never too far from the stage, of which there are two, the main stage at the front & a smaller stage to the right, which had the curtains closed off. Jack & Meg seem to like it too, as they keep coming back and even released a live DVD. My only criticism of the past has been the length of time it takes to get a beer. I think lessons have been learned by the venue & myself, as this time, max waiting time was a mere 10 minutes.
Hurrah!
Any road up, on entering the venue, you are confronted by transvestites in those 60's outfits with the silly hats that the ice cream sellers in cinemas used to wear (not very convincing trannies either - I swear one of them was Iggy Pop). Later on, monks in red habits appear, handing out labelled CDR's, unique to each gig, on which you can download & burn tonight's live version of "The Denial Twist". As we had a mini Andy Davies with us, we were offered seats in the balcony at the back, and having got there fairly early, were able to get seats right on the front row. I normally like to stand at gigs so I can shuffle about in some kind of attempt to dance (although it's one of those Dad Dances these days), but I thought I'd give the seats a go. The seats offered an excellent view of the stage.
The support band were the Greenhornes, from Cincinatti, who played a mixture of Indie & good old fashioned blues rock. I'm a big fan of blues rock, and these guys certainly impressed me (so much so I got their album off Napster). They have a few excellent live tracks, and in fact most were pretty decent. The sound quality was a bit shabby (too much bass) but that's to be expected with the support act. The only criticism I had was that they saved a slow lumbering number for their finale. This is fine for an album, but for a live show, I think they should have chosen a real show stopper to leave the crowd wanting more. All in all though, an excellent support act.
After about half an hour, The White Stripes blast on to the stage playing "Blue Orchid" (I think), and then it's just unrelenting for the next 45 minutes as they blast their way through old favourites & stuff from the new album. A good look at the stage reveals more equipment than the last tour, with a couple of keyboards, a pair of kettle drums, some bells, and of course the Marimba (giant xylophone). I have to say their new stuff was excellent live and much rockier than the album versions. One down side, Meg got to sing. Three times. Twice with "Passive Manipulation" (Women, listen to your mothers etc). It was interesting to see that whenever she sang, Jack either has his back to the audience playing guitar, or is hunched over the piano. This is either an attempt to give Meg the stage, or he is just too embarrassed to be associated with her vocal "talents".
During a toilet break, I overheard a scouser discussing with his mate that this is the 4th time he's seen them & he doesn't understand why they can't bring in some session musicians to recreate the album sound, and, that he's just brought out an acoustic guitar for Christ's sake (it was actually a Les Paul '56 Goldtop, probably reproduction, definately not an acoustic), which just isn't him! Sorry mate, but you are missing the point! This is exactly him! He's the new Hendrix, displaying virtuoso axemanship (with a bit of piano tinkling), supported splendidly by Megs simplistic drumming. The wondrousness is not that they can create exactly the same sound from the album, but that with just the 2 of them, they can produce anything like the songs off the album. Each performance is unique, never sticking to the same set list. So stick that up your @rse!
Anyway, after 40 minutes or so, the band have a quick 10 minute break, after which they surprise 80% of the audience by appearing on the 2nd stage (the other 20% had been there the previous evening). It was quite amusing to see the crowd reaction as the sudden realisation hit that they had moved stages!
On the smaller stage, the duo played some lo-fi versions of some of their songs with Jack playing an acoustic type guitar, and Meg playing what appeared to be an old suitcase, although we couldn't hear it for half the songs due to a problem with her mic. After 20 minutes or so, they then revert back to the main stage to play the remainder of their set, with Jack asking us to clap them onto the stage. He's probably just playing the audience, but at one point he says "You don't mind if we carry on playing for a while do you? I mean we could always wrap it up now & all go home if you would prefer", which of course went down well with the crowd. In the live version of "The Nurse" (the one with the marimba) Jack uses a footpedal to play the shattering guitar feedback outbursts, something I've not seen him use before. And then, somewhere between 11:00 & 11:15 it's all over. A fantastic gig, and one which really shows off the impressive musicianship (not just guitar) of the man that is Jack White.
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Rich 21st March 2006 10:05:08 |
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