Bonnaroo Review: The Raconteurs
Anything less than a face-melting, ear-splitting thunderstorm of a show from the Racontuers at Bonnaroo would have been a disappointment. Their current tour began nearby at the Cannery Ballroom in Nashville, and really started to pick up steam during their vicious April run from Vancouver down the west coast to San Francisco. Reviews of each night carried the same message: THIS IS REAL ROCK N ROLL! By the time I heard the audio from their set at Coachella it was clear Jack White and his band were out to conquer the world this summer.
Leading up to Bonnaroo the band played intimate shows at Stubbs BBQ and the 9:30 Club, and three big shows at New York's Terminal 5, blowing the doors off each of those rooms with songs off the exquisite new Consolers Of The Lonely. As each day passed a steady drumbeat of anticipation built around this question: would the Raconteurs absolutely tear down the stage at Bonnaroo?
The answer came at 5:00 on Friday, when the title track Consolers Of The Lonely kicked off the show.
Brendan Benson wore a sheriff's badge on his guitar strap, and for the next hour and a half the Raconteurs were the law in Tennessee. The first six songs were all from the new album, with Jack White playing keys on You Don't Understand Me, followed by a near devastating one-two punch of Top Yourself and Old Enough. The next song got a long jammy intro during which White and Benson seemed to debate which tune to play. They landed on Store Bought Bones from the Broken Boy Soldiers album, which transitioned into a cover of Charley Jordan's Keep It Clean
"If you want to hear Jack White yellin' yeah yeah yeah... Come on girls, you know you gotta keep it clean"
Steady As She Goes came next, complete with a Seven Nation Army tease, and that led into one of Benson's strongest tracks Rich Kids Blues. The next nine minutes would put the Bonnaroo crowd in a trance, with the slow and quiet build into a searing Blue Veins. Jack White threw himself onto his monitors, soloing wildly on the guitar while writhing on this back on the stage. He would then finish the song, throw down his guitar, and stalk off the stage as the song ended to the roar of 70,00+ fans.
The show would have been described as outstanding had it ended right then, but what transpired after the encore break elevated this performance to the level of epic. A triumphant, celebratory Shades of Black gave way to a bouncy Level that saw White rapping along silently to Benson's delicious guitar solo.
New track Solute Your Solution got a strong workout before the show reached its zenith during Broken Boy Soldier. Jack's voice seemed to fail him during his wild screams of "The boy! The boy!", and the band responded by raising the level of the jam, driving harder toward the finish. As that song ended, several moments passed before composure was regained and the creepy, narriative ballad Carolina Drama was busted out as the closer. Any vocal problems were gone at this point, and White sounded perfect to the last line, a riddle that echoed long after their set ended:
Want to know the end to the story?
You want to know how it ends?
Well if you have to know the truth about the tale
Go and ask the milkman.
Love Jack and the Raconteurs. Been a huge fan since before WS broke up. Saw them when they played Henry Fonda in La. Keep me updated!
Posted by: Erika Lewis | January 09, 2009 at 11:37 AM