Dead Weather, review
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/live-music-reviews/5638815/Dead-Weather...Jack White's new band Dead Weather is good – but why is he on drums? Rating: * * *
Jack White, who is still probably the world's most admired young rock star, is also, unusually, still one of its most productive.
Since he blazed into the headlines with the White Stripes in 2001, he has rather skilfully circumnavigated the fixed schedule for successful artists: record an album, tour for two years, recover from physical exhaustion, then struggle to reacquire the creative mojo, which made you popular to begin with. Or, obviously, you could end up like Amy Winehouse.
White has staved off such inertia. Refusing to tour endlessly, he has instead cut six records in eight years. He diversified with the Raconteurs, where he was co-frontman of a four-piece band – a more integrated role, after leading the two-piece Stripes. He also cut a James Bond theme with Alicia Keyes, and collaborated with Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones.
Last month, he unveiled the Dead Weather, another quartet, in which he is the drummer – an eccentric move, given that he is such a gifted guitarist. On their first UK visit, the band packed out the Forum with curious punters, musicians and famous friends, including Kate Moss and Jude Law – if nothing else, White's methods have certainly kept people guessing.
The first impression: there was a lot of black hair up there. All four were also dressed head-to-toe in black, but accessorised with white guitars; and the music was an accordingly dark, murky variant on the lo-fi blues-rock, which White favours.
Out front, Alison Mosshart, moonlighting from the Kills, yowled out bluesy cadences like White's straggly twin. At the back, White himself thumped out sturdy beats in the manner of Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, and provided occasional vocals from his drum stool, while Dean Fertita, the Raconteurs' keyboard-player, switched to guitar and gnarly, old Sixties organ.
Weirdly, after keeping such a low profile, White stood to introduce the band members. At times, it felt strange watching them rumble away, knowing that the world's most electrifying guitarist was up there, otherwise occupied.
When White left his drum kit and strapped on Fertita's guitar, the temperature in the room rose palpably.
He and Mosshart sang a vamped-up version of Will There Be Enough Water, a song from the band's imminent album, both shrieking into the same microphone, White cranking exhilarating noise from his six-string. Reverting to the original formation, their encore featured a funky, fiery take on Dylan's New Pony.
Intriguing stuff, then, but no substitute for a new White Stripes record.
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The Dead Weather, HMV Forum, London, 24th June (Read 307 times)
