They Been Done Here and Gone

The White Stripes; The Shins; M Ward
@ Keyspan Park
Brooklyn, NY - September 25, 2005

At the last minute, I got a seat ticket to the aggregiously big White Stripes show at Keyspan. But yet again Jack and Meg micromanaged and brought the stadium concert feel back to gig status. It may have well been a club for all the intimate love they effuse. No real surprises musically speaking, just more of the same ol' same ol' - that is, the jaw-dropping, mind-numbing, ass-kicking blues and blues-rock. And the experimental stuff, though in shorter supply on night 2, still worked. Jack taking polaroids and throwing them to the crowd was part of the new happy Jack. Though parts of old misanthropic Jack were quite fun (and recently appeared in combo with new happy Jack when that stage crasher appeared at the Berkley show), happy Jack relishes the live affair, the big crowd, the splendor of being a big time rockstar. Yet, at the same time, it's all done in that style of a regular guy, a real person. Good ol' Jackie White, whose been done here and gone. And ol' Meggie too.
The Shins still sucked...kind of.
M Ward, from what little I saw, offered an Irish punk voice with hard countryish punk. Not bad.