tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343411309634502506.post1391922916363617770..comments2013-05-16T14:42:38.825-04:00Comments on Sound of the Week: The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern LightsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343411309634502506.post-9830527992107229042012-10-17T13:24:39.190-04:002012-10-17T13:24:39.190-04:00Seeing the White Stripes live on that tour was a r...Seeing the White Stripes live on that tour was a revelation for me, not just because of the adjustments to the music, but how the live performance recontextualizes the band itself. The easy joke with The White Stripes was always that Meg was a terrible drummer, a rehash of that old McCartney dick move by saying Ringo wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles. And on a dispassionate, objective level, that's true. Jack always insisted that Meg was integral to the band, however, and it was in live performances that this became evident. The flaw to the "Meg is terrible" argument is that it's the dispassionate one, because the band was all about passion and primal urges clashing against constraints - of structure, recording equipment, of anything you got.<br /><br />Seeing the band perform live ceased any mocking of Meg White that I ever did. Jack said she was integral to the band's nature, and it's the live show that proves it. In concert, Jack is a wild man, screaming and clawing and climbing. He's what you showed up for, but he's not what held the evening together: Meg was. No matter the theatrics and animalistic fury from the other part of the stage, there was Meg. Thump. Thumpthump. Thump. Never extravagant, frequently visibly disinterested, but steady and pounding away, tethering Jack to Earth to keep him from floating away. She gave Jack something to wail against and thus gave the band all its power. Her apparent boredom gave Jack's wildness something to fight. Meg, and Meg specifically, was necessary for the band's success, and it's never clearer in anything the band released than on Under the Great White Northern Lights.Leaskhttp://comicstheblog.comnoreply@blogger.com