The White Stripes, Under Great White Northern Lights, CD and DVD

TWSUGWNL

TWSUGWNL

The White Stripes, Under Great White Northern Lights, CD and DVD – This CD/DVD package to celebrate a documentary of The White Stripes’ tour of every province and territory in Canada (amazing idea – this band latches onto something quirky and then sees it through, very classy!!) comes with a booklet that contains a nice essay by Jim Jarmusch, mostly hyping the film we are about to watch by describing scenes from it and explaining the emotions he gets from certain scenes (Jack and Meg’s wordless love as they acknowledge the tenth anniversary of their first show, etc), much as I will be doing in this review right here, ha ha ha. Comments on consistency and spontaneity, style, and the strange beatnik humor that they have. “[Jack] becomes pure BOY to Meg’s archetypal GIRL.”

There’s a CD and a DVD in this set, what to review first? Okay, let’s do this alphabetically:

the CD – The set starts off with the sound of bagpipes, then kicking into the huge blast of noise that is “Let’s Shake Hands”. Bursting! (Sadly, there’s no listing of where these songs were recorded, other than that they were selected from the 2007 tour of Canada – “A shows” and “B shows” are listed in the booklet). “Little Ghost” is a great little folk strummer on speed. “Blue Orchid blasts us apart with its raw power, and “The Union Forever” is pure MC5 drama and storytelling. “Ball And Biscuit” has Led Zeppelin-y crowd interaction scenes that are pretty cool. “I’m Slowly Turning Into You” is some damn cool grooviness, with its weird keyboard nuttiness going on and on as Jack freaks out on his whacked-out voice, babbling away and away and away. Wow! The collection contains the band’s stunning rendition of “Jolene”, after which Jack says “My name is Jack White and this is my big sister Meg White on the drums.” Sister… yeah right!!! “We Are Going To Be Friends” is a nice little mellow song, chugging along at Jack’s typical amped-up pace. “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” is good fun, and the crowd sings along nicely. “Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn” is a jangly mandolin track that also sounds a bit Zeppelin-esque, but has a cool singalong chorus that the crowd obliges Jack on (“that’s our cousin on the bagpipes”… our cousin?!?!?!). “Fell In Love With A Girl” is good, bluesy rockin’ fun, as is a very long “Seven Nation Army”, which has a increasing crowd singalong on the riff.

the DVD – I’d become more interested in Jack White after seeing him in Let’s Get Loud (reviewed tadalafil cheapest) and observing amazed how he outclassed both The Edge (not hard to do) and Jimmy Page (Jimmy Page, man!!!). I was happy then to watch this personal documentary of the band playing both big venues as well as surprise venues (bowling alleys, a boat in Charlottetown, a flour mill in London, pool halls, etc), and even going so far as to announce a one-note show where they rolled in, blast one single chord, and left (to encore calls for “one more note” – Canadians may be boring, but they are known for their sense of humour).

This is probably the world’s first black and white AND red film, it is very Emily Strange throughout. For the footage done in the north, it is still daylight at 11:15 PM. Jack agonises over the criticism of the band’s image-consciousness, noting how Spin wrote “The White Stripes are simultaneously the most fake band in the world and the most real band in the world. Everything about the White Stripes is a lie.” (Jack should probably be reassured that Jim Jarmusch finds them the real deal at least). When they are in Yellowknife the mayer picks them up from the airport and drives them in to town! Interesting to know that Meg and Jack bowl all over the world, and that Meg never talks and hardly sings. Meg does lead vocals on one song. Another song is synchronized with a 1930s film. They go to Iqaluit in Nanavut territory, many things are red and white, mud town, Rita guitar. They sing songs for the Inuit council, which Jarmusch notes is when they seem at their happiest and most engaged. Jack uses guitars that don’t stay in tune, no set list, keyboard far away, these components force them to create. Plays in a kilt at one point.

There’s a touching scene of Meg weeping as Jack plays a guitar at the end. Very nice video.

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