Last night I saw The White Stripes at the Agganis Arena. This is the third time I've seen Jack White in concert (once with the Raconteurs and twice with The Stripes) and I will continue to pay to watch him at every opportunity. His mix of folk, blues, and rock is fantastic and he puts on an energetic and fantastic show.
Let me begin by saying that I was let down with the tickets, and that's my only complaint about the show. I spent a lot of money on what I thought were floor seat tickets by the sound board. Upon arrival at the show I was disappointed to find that the tickets were really General Admission, no seating. I wasn't the only one who was confused; I spoke with some other fans who had the same misunderstanding. In my case, Ticket Master allowed me to pick seats and mailed me tickets showing section, row, and seat information. Very misleading.
Dan Sartrain opened the show. He did a 30 minute set and other than not sucking, I don't have much to say. None of his music stood out as being exciting for me, and with the arena only being half-full by the end of his set-list there was no energy build up leading into the main act. It was clear that everyone was there for the Stripes and listening to the opener was like washing your hands before dinner.
As always, the Stripes' set was simple: a red backdrop with a shelf that Jack would occasionally walk on (see picture), a mirror ball, and lots of lighting. They opened with Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground which got the whole place fired-up. They played a lot of different material off all of their albums. Jack is an extremely talented musician, highlighted during the performance of Icky Thump. As Jack played his synthesizer with his left hand, he played his guitar with his right. His vocals were fantastic and sounded great from where we were. The set-list mixed in heavy stuff (like the aforementioned Icky Thump) and lighter stuff (Meg did In the Cold Cold Night). I'd looked forward to hearing Deathletter (one of my favorites; Jack covers it amazingly) and an awesome cover (last time I saw them they did Bang Bang (My Baby Shot me Down) by Nancy Sinatra). They did play Ball and a Biscuit and in the encore did a great medley of a few of their songs mixd together that was HOT.
Overall, the show was great. I totally recommend checking out the Stripes of they play near you. It's well worth the price of admission.
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