The Raconteurs

San Francisco was blessed with another gorgeous day yesterday, so we headed into GG park for a BBQ in the afternoon. Around 5ish, when many of the BBQs had already wrapped up, a four piece cover band randomly setup across the field from us and provided ample entertainment. It was like a testament to San Francisco in the 60's, where the music was as free as the love. Then again, since I paid $40 to see the Raconteurs later in the evening, I don't want to conjecture what love will cost me. Which brings an excellent tangent to mind:

Jason Haber and I were present together when we saw a commercial for the new urban comedy: Love Don't Cost a Thang. It looked like a such a rip off of Can't Buy Me Love that we thought it would be fun to see them back to back. Low and behold, I ran across the urban remake in the video store and an evening plan was formed. What we didn't know is that the same screen writer did both movies - so it wasn't just a rip off - it was a modernized remake of the exact same film. This actually made our watching experience so much better, since a lot of scenes were duplicated but modernized. We could do a scene by scene analysis. It was most amusing. No question - the original is much better.

I was turned on to the Raconteurs by Mike Ducey while I was home in Boston. It's Jack White's new band apart from the White Strips. I believe they are old high school friends that all play music for a living. They recently put out their debut album. It has a huge 70's Led Zeppelin feel to it, and the song writing is superb. Its gets in your head. I like it very much.

So, I headed out to the Warfield with pizza and FattyT in my stomach, a little worn from all the shows and intensity of the past week. The crowd was absolutely generic and sort of unclassifiable. It was a bunch of white folks who were happy to shell out $40 to see a show. While I totally fit that profile, I miss my hippie brethren. All the shows the week were devoid of the hippies - with one surprising exception. At almost all the hippie shows I go to, there is a larger, older, Jerry Garcia looking dude. And I mean every hippie show. Even though I'm a friendly guy, quick to make banal conversation with whomever's near me, I consciously decided not to interact with this guy, simply because I like the mystery. It's comforting to see him at the shows. It gives me hope that I can become that guy in my later years. Anyhow, I was totally shocked and bemused to spot him at the Thievery Corporation show, amongst the trend setters and upscale raver community.

I've never seen the White Stripes. In fact, I'm not such of fan of the minimal music, though I do respect the song writing. Therefore, I've never seen Jack White perform before. He's freaking awesome. An absolute monster. He has complete control of his guitar and voice, and has such a rock star flair to him. He's someone you want to see now, while he's young and in his prime. Seeing the Raconteurs was reminiscent of seeing the Black Crows on one of their early tours - they're young, a little crazy, and just on top of their game. I did see the Crow's recently at the Fillmore - a great show with incredible musicians - but they don't have the frenetic energy that you have when you are young and really starting to make it big.

I felt like seeing The Raconteurs was as close as I'll ever get to seeing a young Led Zeppelin. They all rock hard, and the songs are written in that 70's style. Great rhythmic change ups and hooks. No melodic surprises, but I don't feel like they were trying to break new ground. It was like they were extending upon an era which has kinda slipped away. Everything was hit with precision and intensity. Solo's were brief but fierce. Vocals were spot on. Jack White is the alpha male, and I fully endorse that. They played all the songs off their album and were done. The album is mebbe 45 mins long and they played about 80 mins. This was all fine with me - it was Sunday and I had a great 80 mins. Definitely looking forward to more albums from these guys.