Classic Rock Musings, Rants & Raves

Oftentimes, I get so caught up in the expanded reissues, compilations and documentary DVDs coming out from a slew of Classic Rock artists that I forget there’s a cache overflowing with new groups. Yeah, a good majority of them are pretty pathetic, but there’s a select few who are stirring up the pot in an attempt to keep the rock and roll flame burning. The Raconteurs are heading up the charge.

Led by Jack White, the male half of the quirky boutique garage band the White Stripes, the Raconteurs aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but they’re doing a damn good job keeping it greased up. The first night of their two-day stand at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles comprised a 75-minute, no-frills set without pretense or bullshit. White knows he’s the main draw, but on this night he often came across as just another member of the band, which also includes vocalist/guitarist Brendan Benson, bassist Jack Lawrence, drummer Patrick Keeler and keyboardist Mark Watrous.

With all due respect to drummer Meg White, the other half of the White Stripes, Jack needs a full band to get his explosive, quirky ideas across. Having a clutch rhythm section like Lawrence and Keeler makes it easy. The groove that morphed into “Consolers Of The Lonely” wouldn’t have been nearly as dynamic coming from a two-piece. And White’s whining yelp of a rock and roll voice didn’t even come into the song until halfway through. Benson, a solo artist in his own right, played the less abrasive counterpoint, providing that sort of Lennon-McCartney, Ying-Yang thing that sets the foundation and extends the possibilities.

After White wrapped his guitar around a couple of numbers, he jumped over on a Fender Rhoads and went into a bluesy, gospel mode on “Blue Veins.” This song is pure old school, but White made it soulful and fresh. From there, he strapped on an acoustic and fell into a Delta blues number called “Top Yourself.” Here, Benson got a chance to slip and slide up and down his bottleneck like a possessed Jimmy Page from 1971.

“Intimate Secretary” was a churning bucket of commotion with White’s piercing, staccato leads popping holes in the ozone, while the frenetic blues-based romp of “Keep It Clean” tapped into the root of White’s chakra. By this time, the spelling game was tumbling across the sea of faces like lost luggage, never to be found again. “You Don’t Understand Me” put White back behind the keys, where he could have just as easily confessed to a shopping list of indiscretions, but instead pored his heart into a simple case of miscommunication. “Old Enough,” with keyboardist Mark Watrous handling the fiddle, stuck out as a spunky reflection of the group’s adopted home-base of Nashville (White and Benson are from Michigan).

Then it was another trip through the murkiness of the blues with “Rich Kid’s Blues” before finishing the main set with the group’s first single from 2006, “Steady, As She Goes.” White joked that the song was “a hit for us back in 1974,” but there was no doubt in my mind the driving riff would have fit right in back then.

The encore of “Many Shades Of Black” and “Salute Your Solution/Broken Boy Soldier” confirmed what I already figured out: the Raconteurs are a hot rod unit that meander and whittle away with the best of the Bonnaroo jam bands. That alone gives them a lot of credibility in my book. And my book doesn’t necessarily follow the dictum of Classic Rock.

In the world of Classic Rock, you hear a lot of old guys whining how the good old days are forever gone and that new music just out and out sucks. These are the same guys who won’t give Radiohead and Beck any credit for creating new and wondrous music, then claim the last Lynyrd Skynyrd album was their best. Go figure. So where does that leave a group like the Raconteurs? Perched at the crossroads of what was and what can be could very well mean they are the future of rock and roll. I’ll be keeping my eye out on this one to see if it’s true.

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