this is just one more thing to check off my list of summer awesomeness: the dead weather concert. there are a myriad of rants brewin' in me about this show but, bottom line, it was possibly one of the greatest rock concerts i have ever been to. why have i never seen jack white before?!
the night started out as my toronto adventures usual begin and that is at pickle barrel. our delicious waiter jamie was just that and he loved that i called him dude. apparently he is a closeted surfer. who knew? toronto is weird to me now in that i am moving there literally in a year and won't look back. walking down yonge street i thought about how this would be my familiar playground, that, hopefully, on the other side on gerrard st. that school would be my school. maybe i will one day make friends with the crazy old man who stands outside forever21 and tells me jesus loves me. oh the theological debates we could have!
"jesus loves you!"
"no, he doesn't..."
"... JESUS."
the actual show.
now here's my issue with all age concerts or crowds in general. i hate being in crowded places and yet i live in concert venues where, inevitably, i am going to be smooshed by some asshole who doesn't know his boundaries. death cab in april was possibly the worst crowd until last night. at 19+ shows, people know how to space out in a room and not get up in everyone's business. at all ages shows, even this one with the crowd majority was over 18, there is no such consciousness of this. my favourite was satchamo here:
this guy was such a tool. first of all he was like one thousand feet tall and his gleaming bald head killed my eyes because the already annoying light reflected nicely off his cueball. three quarters through the set he turns to me, glazed and shit, and is staring at me for a good two minutes before yelling at me, "GOT ANY WEED?" a good "fuck you" came his way and i was called a bitch. what else is new.
but i can't actually be super pissed because this was an amazing show. alison mosshart is in the running to be my favourite frontwoman ever and that is a big deal and well, it was jack fucking white. but i have come to realize that he is an elusive creature. i could barely see him and i am sure that is the way he wanted it. all the penis in the room came to see jack white and his amazing guitar skills. he did play and when he did my knees did a little shakin'--or perhaps that is because they were trying to buckle from the crowd and the standing and i just wouldn't let them. he sat at his drumset most of the night, being all jack white, and some people made stupid comments about meg cos they are dicks but he can hold his own. the album and hearing the album live are two very different experiences. i can listen to the album all the way through because i love it and because it feels a little bit more mellow. i half expected carpets to be put on the set and a stool for alison to sit on as she crooned to the crowd but that is so not her style.
instead it felt like a real proper rock and roll concert. i know concerts are proper concerts but it was more than that. it was the energy, the crowd, the way the band played that i felt as though the time wasn't 2009 teetering on entering the end of the first decade of the 00s but more like the late 60s. the pot made me feel that way too. i was so beyond hotboxed because our side of the stage was the most drugged and everyone and their mother smoked up. their sound is amazing because it feels like a rockabilly, bluesy kind of melody but can be beautifully hard and raw at the same time with this harsh rock sound. it was amazing to say the least.
this is the one picture i got of jack white's face. the lighting sucked for pictures unless i was closer or right in front of the barricade because it was dark blue. it completely added to the atmosphere and i was happier for that instead of radtastic pictures. sorry dude from queens of the stone age.
currently listening to: so far from your weapon--the dead weather
