Jack White, Legendary Musician of Our Generation.

The Dead Weather failed to dissapoint last night at The Bandshell in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. I am so happy to have seen them live, not only because of their unique 'take no prisoners' sound, but because Jack White is one of the greatest musicians of our generation. From The White Stripes' minimalistic edge to The Ranconteurs' power-pop rock twang through The Dead Weather's (I'm stealing this description from AMny) "scuzzy, spooky, '60's garage rock"; he is a creative genius. And while he fronted the White Stripes on guitar/vocals, and Meg banged away on the drums, Jack proves he is also a tremendous drummer. There is nothing more enthralling than seeing a pale figure dressed in black, adorned with top hat and feather, banging on his drums with mallets.



What's awesome about Jack White is that he completely commands the stage. When he lit Alison Mosshart's cigarette with a blow torch, you knew he meant business. His witty banter was on point at this show, and in his quirky shaky voice, he poked fun at the hipster enclave of Brooklyn by saying, "I bet you read Brooklyn Vegan ... any other vegans in the crowd out there? Come on stage and we'll kill a cow together." You can't help but think, I wish I could bust people's balls like that!

As insane as he is on drums, he is even nastier on the guitar. It's a sight to see, as he attacks both drums and guitar, and lets out his raw vocals. I do have to say, I agree with Rob when he said that the encore was way louder, and in our opinion, more powerful than the first set. But that may have just been a technical glitch with their amps. My short stature was also tried at this show, as we stood around really tall guys making weird squealling noises. Regardless, the encore ended the night on the powerful note we expected it to.



Now, the front woman of The Dead Weather is Bad-Ass. Alison Mosshart, also of The Kills, crawled and snaked her away around the menacing stage; taxidermy abounding and huge eye looming. Jack & Alison have great chemistry together onstage. A tad more believable than the we're-brother-and-sister JUST KIDDING we-were-really-married relationship of The White Stripes. Her voice has a haunted quality, so when she sings that she wants to hang you from the heavens , you'd better get out of her way. Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stoneage and Jack Lawrence of The Ranconteurs complete this troup of musicians.


(see the taxidermy!)

Jack made a comment during the show that Alison thought the crowd wasn't "feeling it." I think we proved them wrong by giving them the energy they needed so we could hear more. Either that or his "if you're not happy, you'll have to deal with her," threat, set us straight.