My excitement for this concert was a fickle thing. It started out at a 10. Then I heard the new album Boarding House Reach and my excitement dived to a 6. I got tickets when they were first announced, so before the album came out. I thought for sure it was going to sell out. I don’t think it ever did. I’m still surprised as to how that didn’t happen.
Anyways I got tix for me and my concert buddy Jake Flatt. My roommate Josh was supposed to go but ended up bailing last minute. We called around and asked just about everyone to fill in the last spot. Our buddy Michael who does booking down at the Central was down so we ended up driving down that way and meeting up with him there for some quick drinks.
From the Central we walk to Wamu. Once we showed up we were surprised to see they had these pouches you had to put your phone in so that you couldn’t use them during the concert. They’re locked tight so theres definitely no filming or pictures allowed. Or finding your friends if you lose them in the crowd. I will say I love this idea though. I’ve been to lots of concerts where the crowd is cell phone centric and it does ruin the “aesthetic”. The Maroon 5 concert is one great example of that.
Anyways I definitely did not care for the opener. Can’t even remember their name. I just remember thinking “how the heck did they get the opening spot?!”
We just chilled in the beer garden portion of Wamu in the back left the whole time but we had a great view of the stage. Jack White finally came on and of course it was amazing. There was a cool countdown movie before he got on stage. It was made especially cool since no one had cell phones so we just kind of had that clock to go off of. The clock would speed up and slow down so everyone was kind of on the edge of their seat as to when he would hit the stage.
He started off with his best song off of the new album “Over and Over”. All of the musicians are of course top notch and I immediately was impressed with Jack White’s guitar work. The stage was bathed in Blue Light and in fact throughout the whole concert it was just constant blue light. It really made for a cool experience. You wouldn’t think it would be exciting but it does give it a unique look.
Song and song that came on Jack White always stood out for his amazing guitar work. Especially the tone! His guitar tone is topnotch. I mean I guess thats common sense but it was just cool to me to hear it live, not produced on an album. Highlights for me were hearing Hotel Yorba, Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, and Daughter (Pearl Jam Cover).
Quick funny story on Hotel Yorba. Its always been one of my favorite White Stripes songs. When I worked in a call center you always had to say letters over the phone to the old customers. So it would be like “B as in boy, or C as in cat”. One day I was spelling something out and I got to Y an I said “Y as in….Yorba”. The lady was like “Yorba?!!” I just responded with “yea Yorba”. Pretty hilarious. Anyways..
The Daughter cover was absolutely killer! it almost sounded like Eddie Vedder on stage. I thought it was cool because Pearl Jam had just did a White Stripes cover less than a week earlier at Safeco so it was a cool nod of the head their way.
Anyways, after 12 or 13 songs we ended up ditching out early. It was a Monday night and we all were worn out from the weekend and having to work in the morning. I ended up googling the rest of the setlist an only missed 5 songs, so for what its worth it wasn’t too bad.
I will say that after seeing him live I have a new respect for Boarding House Reach. The musicianship live is something to be well respected, and its no wonder that he’s become one of the biggest names in Rock and Roll in the past 20 years. I look forward to catching another show next time he swings through town.
Here’s a cool example of how the show went (although this is not from the Seattle show)