Jack White In Hammersmith

In the future people will remark that Rock and Roll was a art form perfected by scruffy youths who upon perfecting their art became known as Rock Stars, the latest and potential last Rock Star is Jack White.

I'm certain we all know his music, he created the rawest blues and combined Led Zeppelin with Son House, with MC5 and then added a violin (in his latest album). White may be a eccentric know for his obsessions with the colour blue, the number three and his constant exclamations that Meg White is his sister, whereas she was his wife.



The White Stripes are possibly the most iconic rock group of the 2000s with only indie rock artists possibly rivalling him (Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Wilco). His deformed mutated Blues captured the people in 2001 with "White Blood Cells" (One of my top 100 personal albums) and in 2003 "Elephant" confirmed his place in the rock canon (as has his various escapades and collaborations with classic rock artists such as Neil young, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. When you consider that the Keith and Mick were 39 (or 40) when Undercover came out (One of the worse classic rock failures of the 80s), and when you consider that Bob Dylan was 39 when 'Saved' was released, it is easy to see that when rock musicians turn 39 it is a common theme that they do not produce fine pieces of work to rival their earlier pieces. Jack White may not have created the best album of his career in Lazaretto, but he has released a solid album, which until yesterday i would have thought was full of stagnated boring songs. Yesterday at the Hammersmith Apollo, I discovered that Jack White is the last great rock star, I discovered that he is the last rocksmith and I discovered Lazaretto (A word for medical quarantine) .



The gig felt alive and was the most exhausting (mentally and physically) gig that I've ever been too. The songs continued a barrage of rock, and the crowd chorused back every word while maintaining perhaps the most righteous mosh pit in existence and White among all of this watched back in glee at the crowds response to newer songs. The stand out songs remain the ones you'd imagine Steady As She Goes, Hello Operator, Ball and Biscuit, Hotel Yorba and The Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground. Is this gig going to be looked back on in history as a catalyst moment when rock changed and when rock arose from its ashes to become great again with White sat as the necromancer in this situation? Unlikely but i'm ending this here to get out my guitar and to start working on my song about medical quarantine to rival Lazaretto.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The 1960s Lost Psychedelic Band: Gandalf

Interview with Don Craine of The Downliners Sect

Forever Changes - Love (1967)