Live review: Dead Weather at the Tabernacle. Fri., Oct. 2
October 5th, 2009 by Web Editor in Music news
By Elliott Garstin
During Friday night’s Dead Weather set at the Tabernacle, Jack White told a nearly capacity crowd that the former Baptist church was the place the band was conceived almost a year to the day. The Raconteurs were touring in support of their second record Consolers of the Lonely and had the Kills along as support. The man works fast.
The Dead Weather, as you probably know feature Jack White, his Raconteur band mate Jack Lawrence, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and Alison Mosshart of the Kills. The band got together in January at Jack’s Nashville studio and banged some songs out over a two and-a-half week period. They put them to tape and boom… done… album finished. It hit stores in July and the band’s been hitting the festival circuit and touring heavily ever since.
View a gallery of Perry Julien’s photos from the show.
They made their way back to their birthplace Friday night and cranked out a blistering hour and-a-half set. Now Mr. White has become known for his ability to write and record at lightspeed, and more often than not, the results are top notch. This may be the only place I can find fault in the Dead Weather. The heavy, dirgey blues sound suits the band very well, but the songs are not all quite there yet. No doubt there were killer cuts through out the set including “Hang You From The Heavens,” “Cut Like A Buffalo” and the show closer “Treat Me Like Your Mother,” but what made the band mesmerizing was the overall aesthetic and the summation of all things Dead Weather, not a collection of amazing Jack White-penned songs. To make up the difference, the band peppered in some wisely chosen covers from the likes of Them, Pentagram and Bob Dylan. With the band being barely being a year old and needing to fill out a headlining set, I’m okay with that.
But for a much as I’ve referenced Jack White so far, the Dead Weather wouldn’t be nearly as intriguing if it wasn’t for Alison Mosshart. Never being a huge Kills fan, I wasn’t sure what I was going to get from Ms. Mosshart, but her ability to exude a dark, yet powerful sexuality gives the band a dynamic that no other Jack White project has. Her snakey, vampire like demeanor takes the songs to places they aren’t able to go on record. With a stage drenched in a blue tint enhanced with powerful white frontlights and a constant bombardment by a manic strobe, the Dead Weather achieved sensory overload.
Will the band last? Who knows? Jack White’s obviously a busy guy with three bands, a label, a record store and the dude was even the subject of a documentary with Jimmy Page and the Edge. It would be cool to see what the Dead Weather has to offer in the future. All the elements are there for greatness, but if it was a one shot deal then so it goes. The fall is here folks and the Dead Weather put on the quintessential October show.
(Photo by Perry Julien)
October 5th, 2009 at 10:19 am
awesome show.
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ummm, ok. the dead weather put on an awesome show.