My expectations were set high. Not only was this “Jack White’s new band” and “Alison Mosshart’s newest project,” The Dead Weather’s debut release, Horehound, was a phenomenal 11-track lesson in blues, rock and soul. How would it translate live? Would Jack White hide in the shadows the whole show? Would the Raconteurs guys get to play any notes?
A sold out First Avenue crowd milled around the venue Monday night, anxiously pounding $6 PBR tallboys and sharing Jack White minutiae: “Did you hear he was at Murray’s last night?” “The guy next to me in the restroom said he saw Jack get off the tour bus a minute ago.” “I would leave you for Jack White, immediately. No questions asked.”
Vocalist Alison Mosshart (The Kills), drummer and vocalist Jack White (The White Stripe, The Raconteurs), guitarist Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age, The Raconteurs) and bassist Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes) took the stage dressed all in black and kicked off “60 Feet Tall” with a cautious confidence that rock history would be made that night.
When the first chords of “Hang You From the Heavens” hit, the crowd erupted. High-fives cascaded across the floor (weird?), and folks were spilling beer all over each other in delight. Detroit rock had arrived in Minneapolis.
Fertita stood stage right and switched between organ and guitar with ample opportunity for stanza solos, although his best work was on “A Child of a Few Hours Is Burning To Death.” The bespeckled Lawrence didn’t play a wrong note through the entire set. Both are hands-down great musicians, but their stars seemed dimmer compared to partners on drums and vocals.
Mosshart commanded the crowd’s attention and ate up each cheer and clap. Whether perched atop the monitors, straddling the mic stand, dry humping White’s guitar or smoking a joint on the stage left amps, Mosshart exudes sexuality at all times. It’s hard to look away, and she knows it.
It was four songs into the set when White finally came out from behind the kit, drumsticks still in hand, to sing the first verse of Them cover “You Just Can’t Win” before returning to the drums to finish out the song.
It was “Will There Be Enough Water?” with Lawrence on the drums and White on guitar that cemented it for me. This was not just a great concert. It was phenomenal. With White and Mosshart almost kissing on the mic singing, “Will there be enough wind? Oh cool water” bridged by a scorching signature Jack White guitar solo, the world really couldn’t get any better.
The encores further sealed the deal. Sensing the show was coming to a close, the crowd thrust their near-empty PBR cans into the air and screamed along with “Treat Me Like Your Mother.” The band, playing mostly on adrenaline at this point, tore into Bob Dylan’s “New Pony,” making it nearly unrecognizable in that permissive positive way only a really talented group of musicians can pull off.
It should go without saying that seeing The Dead Weather on their debut tour covering their debut album at the legendary First Avenue was a momentous opportunity. In the future, TDW will either cease to exist — with White moving to his next latest and greatest project — or the band will put out more material and play larger and larger venues.
Either way, last night’s show was worth hanging from the heavens…at least for 2009.
Setlist:
- 60 Feet Tall
- Bone House
- Hang You From The Heavens
- You Just Can’t Win (Them cover)
- So Far From Your Weapon
- I Cut Like a Buffalo
- Child of a Few Hours Is Burning To Death
- Rocking Horse
- No Hassle Night
- Will There Be Enough Water?
- Forever My Queen (Pentagram cover)
- Treat Me Like Your Mother
- New Pony
Encore:
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