(TV) Way OT: White Stripes/Q

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

I can not post a useable/functioning link so here is whole shebang.

Q for list: Is Jack White really that good a guitarist?  (Am asking this since I don't trust Steve Morse's musical opinions.) 


MUSIC REVIEW
Stripes back a spotless record with a 
bumpy performance  By Steve Morse, Globe Staff, 4/22/2003 
The hype is all true. The new White Stripes CD, ''Elephant,'' is an outstanding record. I
t sounds up-to-the-minute even as it references such music royalty as Cream, the Rolling 
Stones, and Robert Johnson. It is the first intergenerational rock album in a while, so it shouldn't 
have been a shock to see young hipsters mingling with boomers at the sold-out 
Orpheum on Sunday night. 
There was only one problem. The White Stripes onstage are not yet as proficient as 
they are in the studio, so Sunday's show was a spasmodic, up-and-down 
adventure ride. There were moments of excitement, yes, 
but they were offset by singer Jack White's tangents, which overwhelmed 
some of the songs. 
Where the tunes live and breathe beautifully on the new CD 
(and show White to be a singer of uncommon range and emotion), 
they were sometimes carved into messy bits of manic silliness onstage. 
White occasionally seemed like a cartoon character rather than an artist of depth. 
The Detroit-hatched White Stripes are just a duo (Jack White on guitar 
and his ex-wife, Meg White, on drums), so when Jack goes on a 
self-indulgent binge (as he did by rushing some songs and 
hatcheting their melodies), there is only Meg to keep him honest. 
But she's mainly a timekeeper (an excellent one, at that) and seems too nice 
a person to stand up to Jack's histrionics and offbeat deconstructions 
of some songs. (His attempt to cover Dolly Parton's ''Jolene'' was so 
contrived it seemed like a bad mimicking of the psychobilly of 
Lux Interior and the Cramps.) 
Now the positives. Jack White is an incredible guitarist when he puts 
his mind to it, able to mix visceral acid-blues with head-bashing garage-punk 
and supersonic, Eddie Van Halen-like shredding. And when he stayed on 
course, as he did on the new hit ''Seven Nation Army'' and the sexy 
''Ball and Biscuit,'' he was extremely powerful. He should chill out 
his ego a bit, though, and let Meg do more lead singing. She stepped up 
for the evocative ''In the Cold, Cold Night'' and was superb. 
Overall point: Go buy the new album. That's where the White Stripes 
can best be appreciated right now. 
This story ran on page E5 of the Boston Globe on 4/22/2003. 
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