The Kool Haus http://www.theguvernment.com/ was true to its name last night as Jack White (White Stripes and The Raconteurs frontman) and Allison Mosshart (Singer for the Kills) brought their supergroup side project, The Dead Weather to Toronto.
This time on drums, White's latest blues-punk-rock outfit, which also features guitarist-keyboardist Dean Fertita from Queens Of The Stone Age and Raconteur's bassist Jack Lawrence collectively rocked out like only a supergroup can.
To call it a performance would be to do it a great injustice. This was an experience - the sort that stays with you for posterity. A packed venue on a flat floor (the only criticism - slope the floors please!) usually spells an early departure for a 5 footer like me as after a while I just can't see the stage - but that didn't matter last night. I squeezed every last drop of elixir out of this vessel; glimpses of Mosshart or White felt like what I imagine seeing a panther in the wild would.
Mosshart's sultry disenfranchisement put me in mind of Jeanne Moreau - obliviously self involved against an eery backdrop of tangled tree limps and voodoo imagery, a sense of hopelessness prevailed; doomed to fall under her spell there was no point in trying to fight the inevitable; Her dark and guttural voice permeating to the bone.
Lest you should forget to whom she sold her soul, Jack White steps out from behind the drums seamlessly moving from drums to guitar and insanely talented on both. To me there is nothing more attractive. I don't know what he is like as a person, but I like to imagine he's moody and socially awkward, insecure for sure - where else do you find the substance for art if not gouged out of your personal flaws? But apparently not. Apparently the man is nice. And perfect. It's heartbreaking.
And then as if in mid sentence, it stopped. No-one wanted it to but that is the nature of desire. As I made my way out into the street debating whether to walk or take a cab to the train station, the heavens opened and more dead weather arrived.
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