Jack White's 'The Raconteurs' performed at San Francisco's Bimbo's 365 last night to a sell-out crowd made-up of what I would assume to be complete Jack White fans, or lucky ticket-buyers like me! When tickets went on-sale, they sold-out quickly and were only made available at Will-Call the night of the show. In addition, when picking up the tickets, you were forced to go directly inside the venue -- effectively limiting the opportunity to scalp or sell tickets to anyone other than the original purchaser.Well, as I said, I was one of the lucky ones to get tickets as they went on sale. We arrived at Bimbo's just after 9pm to find that the opening band, the Birds of Avalon, were already loading up their van after their performance.
After standing in a line that extended down to the corner of the building for about 5 minutes, we made our way into the show. And after a few more minutes, The Raconteurs made their way on-stage at about 9.20pm, played for an hour and then broke for a quick break before returning to the stage to play for another 25 minutes.
For those of you who don't know the history of the band (and I'll admit that I only knew about Jack White's participation) I've copied a bit of info from Wikipedia here:
The band features four members previously known for other musical projects: Jack White (of The White Stripes), Brendan Benson (solo), Jack Lawrence (of The Greenhornes and Blanche), and Patrick Keeler (of The Greenhornes).
About the formation of the band, wikipedia states that "The seed was sown in an attic in the middle of a hot summer when friends Jack White and Brendan Benson got together and wrote a song that truly inspired them. This song was 'Steady, As She Goes' and the inspiration led to the creation of a full band with the addition of Lawrence and Keeler." The band came together in Detroit during 2005 and recorded when time allowed for the remainder of the year. Due to the various members' success in other bands, they were quickly dubbed a supergroup. The band, however, asserted they were not, saying that the term implies something pre-planned, whereas they are actually "a new band made up of old friends."
Along with the song 'Steady as She Goes', they played a host of other songs that I've included below. Unfortunately, security was pretty tight throughout the night with large signs as we entered Bimbo's about no camera phones, etc being allowed in. Typically, my video isn't great, but the video I've captured below is truly sub-par as I was trying to keep the camera hidden out of sight. That said, the audio capabilities of the camera still amaze me!
As for favorites of the night, I'd probably have to say that "Rich Kid Blues" was high on my list. Take a listen for yourself here:
Rich Kid Blues:
The Raconteurs' best known single, "Steady As She Goes" can be heard here:
Steady As She Goes:
And they ended the night with "Carolina Drama" -- at which point I got a little more ballsy with the camera and actually got slightly better video footage towards the end of the song.
Carolina Drama:
I've added two others that you might enjoy, but weren't favorites of mine. "Solute Your Solution" and "Old Enough".
Solute Your Solution:
Old Enough:
Overall, the night was a great opportunity to catch a great band in a very small venue as I'm assuming they were using the night to practice before playing the summer music festival Coachella this weekend. A larger summer tour will follow shortly thereafter.
