Plaid Cowboys

The Raconteurs; The Muldoons
@Irving Plaza
New York, NY – April 7, 2008

Talk about a night of full circle. The most anticipated project in recent history made it’s American debut in bombastic style but was humbled both by its own hubris and its opening act. Let’s delve into this. The Raconteurs are the first side-project for Jack White since Loretta Lynn’s Do-Whaters and the first to be taken as a serious stand-alone band to remain around for a long time. The rhythm section of the Do-Whaters, who are also the boys from the Greenhornes, drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist “Little” Jack Lawrence (whom we also know from Blanche), are now the rhythm section for this band. Co-leading the band with Jack in vocals, guitar work, and song writing is Brendan Benson. The ultimate Detroit (with respect to Cincinnati) Supergroup has arrived, though Jack has moved to Nashville and is hailing the band as coming from there (or at least, so it appears). The Raconteurs released their first limited edition single last month, cut a video for it, and then did a handful of shows in England (how any legitimate American rock artist must start out) and a couple of radio shows. Then they announced their North American debut with this show at Irving Plaza. The gig sold out amazingly quickly and the hype was on. So we come to the show. The bouncers are absolutely paranoid about picture taking, on orders of the “management” (and later changed to the “band”) and there is an unfortunate but understandable barrier set-up between the crowd and the stage. It is apparent that Jack White is prepared for the explosion of the White Stripes to happen all over again (or something less flattering is afoot). But the crowd turned out to be fairly decent, no moshing or crowd surfing, but far from dull. And so the band took the stage to the sounds of old Western cowboy themes (including the theme used in Kill Bill Vol. 2) dressed in plaid as they’ve been known to do, a giant lush “R” and huge metal lamps hanging behind them, and the Plaid Cowboys let the show rip with their grooving blues-rock number “Level”. All night the band fluttered between out-right hard-rocking 3-chord rock and almost-progressive jam-like arena rock, with a ballad or two thrown in for good measure. The Raconteurs are meant to recall the hard rock bands of the 70’s with a fresh perspective (though their covers of the Flamin’ Groovies, Love, and Ron Davies indicate a respect for the less commercial music that inspired these guys and their peers). The penultimate song “Blue Veins” is an ode to Zeppelin/Floyd blues but with a stark presence of latter-day blues men like BB King and Buddy Guy – it was a surprisingly smooth and soulful blues epic rather than the nitty gritty dirty raw nasty blues we’ve come to expect from Jack. And in less than an hour, the show was over. A packed, celebrity-filled crowd, rock snobs, hipsters, rockers, stringent rules – you couldn’t get more hyped than this…but the Raconteurs delivered and delivered more than what could be asked for.

Dan Fertita is the able keyboardist who plays with the band live but gets no credit.
(Photos by Amauriaguiar)

But how is this full circle? The opening act were the Muldoons. Drummer Brian Muldoon was Jack’s teacher in his upholstery shop lo’ those many years ago in the 1990’s and was Jack’s first recording partner in the band fittingly called The Upholsterers. Brian has two sons, one middle-school aged - Hunter, the other elementary school-aged – Shane and he has taught them well in the school of rock. Jack produced their first single for Ben Blackwell’s Cass Records, and the trio played their first shows ever for the White Stripes last year. And here they are, making their New York debut, opening for Jack’s latest thing. Little Shane may not have the soothing voice, but it is a treat live, especially visually – what with his little tie, his little fingers on the neck, the little strap falling off his little shoulder, and his great ability to emulate all the great rockers as he crashes to his knees and plays the guitar behind his head. Older brother Hunter is shaping up to be an excellent three-cord guitar monster, best showing his chops on “Red and Black” and similar sounding songs. When the band took things to an all-out punk level, it seemed a bit much after awhile, but there is nothing to scoff at with these kids and their Dad. This was a smart and fun way to open up this full circle night.

(Photo by Laura of The Modern Age)

Rob Jones Poster sold at the gig