The White Stripes @ MSG

I found out at 8pm tonight that I suddenly had in my possession 2 free tickets to the sold-out White Stripes show at Madison Square Garden. I've never been a huge Stripes fan, but I was nevertheless excited. I went, I saw, and I said "hmm..yay!...eh." I got there after Grinderman's set, Nick Cave's new band, but arrived the minute Jack and Meg came rushing on stage with their glamourously timid/wild personas. I wasn't that amazed by their set as a whole, but it was a rush to just see the stupefyingly large crowd giving the band ovations after mere 2-second tune-ups of Jack's guitar. The band mostly played tracks from Icky Thump, but it was nice to hear the hits: "Fell in love with a girl" and "blue orchid." The part of the show that I loved was the light presentation alone. MSG may not have the best sound in its great big garden, but damn does it do good lights. With a big disco ball, the techies successfully simulated a full-fledged acid trip; complete with strobes, red, white, and purple scrap lights traveling across the ceiling and adoring fans' faces.

I did, however, completely fall in love with Meg White despite her level 1 drum skills. Although the songs sped up and slowed down often due to her misplaced concentration, she's so damn cute. Jack even gave her the spotlight for a few moments to sing her own little rock ballad. Jack introduced it as Meg's vocal debut in New York. It was sweet. I taped it!

Jack and Meg did, unfortunately, take an excessively long set-to-encore break, leaving the crowd to cheer aimlessly for a good 10 minutes. Why do this to your screaming screaming screaming ahhhhhhhh fans? The encore was better than the set though! There's a reason their hits are hits, and this was completely evident, in that they played practically all of their hits in their encore: "I just don't know what to do with myself," which rocked, "seven nation army," "we are gonna be friends," "my doorbell," etc.

The great thing about this show was their onstage chemistry. Because it is only Jack and Meg White up there, you can tell they've really got each other's backs. When their last song finished, and the two of them rubbed elbows before jumping up onto the amplifier and bowing, you felt a moment of tenderness that isn't necessarily easily found in a place like MSG. From the beginning introduction of Jack White stating that Meg was his "big sister," to the end kodak moment I just mentioned, it was a fun time.

Their fun; their music may not be the greatest, but fun is a really good word to describe them.

Lights:

mp3: THE WHITE STRIPES - CONQUEST (they didn't play this though)