When
· Naughties
· · 2005
· · · August
· · · · 07 (1 entry)
White Stripes, Ouch · If you’re thinking of catching the band on this tour, you might want to think again. We saw them this evening and the sound was catastrophic, abominable. Now, you don’t go to see WS expecting crystalline purity, but occasionally being able to hear the vocals would be nice. A few of the big guitar lines came through, but that’s about all, and lots of those were lost too. And if you are going, don’t even consider taking a seat high up in the balcony, because there’s a zillion-watt light behind Meg, silhouetting her in a way that’s probably nicely dramatic down front, but makes the whole stage vanish in a painful dazzle for the top fifty rows or so. Pretty well the entire population of our section went to stand in aisles out of the glare, and the security guards who came to clear the aisles were sent packing with an earful. Lots of songwriting and charisma, but a waste of money live. [Update: Several people write to tell me that they’ve seen the Stripes recently and the sound wasn’t bad; so maybe it was just the hall (the Orpheum in Vancouver). From my point of view, they took my money and gave me an unlistenable show; but your mileage may vary.]
