The Raconteurs

Members:

Jack White - Guitar/Vocals

Brendan Benson - Guitar/Vocals

Jack Lawrence - Bass

Patrick Keeler - Drums

Discography:

Broken Boy Soldiers - 2006

Consolers of the Lonely - 2008

As I've mentioned on here a couple of times before, I have a huge man-crush on Jack White.  I love pretty much everything he's done, from his early recordings in a duo called The Upholsterers to his latest album with The Dead Weather.  I didn't always love Jack White, but the song Level off of Broken Boy Soldiers got me interested, and it just sort of snowballed from there.

The group formed in 2005, and has kept the same four members the whole time, despite the fact that they all play in other projects.  They do bring along one multi-instrumentalist when they tour.  In support of Broken Boy Soldiers they toured with Dean Fertita (from Queens of the Stone Age, also part of Brendan Beson's solo project and now plays with Jack White in The Dead Weather) on keyboards, percussion and guitar.  While touring after the release of Consolers of the Lonely, Mark Watrous played keyboards, percussion, fiddle and sang backup.

Another band introduced to me by my very tall friend, The Raconteurs have created their own breed of rock 'n' roll.  Consolers of the Lonely incorperates many different musical styles, from country to bluegrass to folk (okay, I'll admit that those are all similar genres).  Initially I had only heard the group's first single, Steady as She Goes, and wasn't too impressed.  I thought it was just another boring, generic, mainstream pop-rock song, and being the hip young 17 year-old asshole that I was, I had no interest.  Eventually that very tall friend of mine showed me the rest of the CD, and as I mentioned above, the song Level got into my head immediately.  I enjoyed it, but still wasn't a huge fan.

Of course, time passed, things changed.  When The White Stripes released Icky Thump in 2007, I began to really like the work that Jack White did.  I became a casual White Stripes fan, but always steered away from Seven Nation Army (still do).  One day at work (where I'm forced to listen to the radio, unfortunately) I heard a song that I thought was a new White Stripes single, but I never caught the name of it.  Well, turns out that that "new White Stripes" song was actually Salute Your Solution, the first single off of Consolers of the Lonely.  I immediately went home and downloaded...I mean legally purchased...the album and gave it a partial listen through.  Not really what I was expecting, based off of Broken Boy Soldiers, but it was damn good, better in my opinion.  Well as luck would have it, The Raconteurs were one of the bands playing at Bonnaroo that year, and it just so happened that my brother and I were planning on heading down with a few buddies.  The more I listened to Consolers, the more excited I got for their show.  By the time we left, The Raconteurs were easily the biggest draw for me, in a lineup that had, amongst about a hundred others, Pearl Jam, Stephen Marley, Chris Rock and B.B. King.

The show was unreal.  The crowd was pretty big, so we just hung out near the back.  Since it was only the second main stage show we ever saw at Bonnaroo, we didn't know that heading to the left side of the crowd means easy access to good spots (don't know why, but look at any aerial pictures and the left side of the crowd is always half the size of the right).  Their songs sound great in a live setting, and the guys bring so much energy and power to the show that they don't need fancy lights or gimmicks to make their show good.  Nope, they survive on talent alone, unlike so many bands these days.  The crowd loved the show, and the band really fed off that energy.  They played everything with a bit more distortion and aggression than their recordings, which is fine with me.  The show was sort of a hometown gig, since they are from Nashville, and Bonnaroo is held in Manchester, Tennessee, about 65 miles from Nashville.

One part of the show that really sticks out with me is how good Patrick Keeler is at drums.  It was sweltering hot and humid as shit (how humid is shit, anyways?) and this guy was still nailing every single stroke perfectly.  I was most impressed with the way he switched the grip on the drumstick in his right hand in the middle of big long fills without missing a beat.  As my Tom Cruise lovin' pal would say, that's crazy bus.

Interesting fact: due to a band in Queensland already using the name Raconteurs, the group is known as The Saboteurs in Australia.  A member of the Australian Raconteurs explains that they were not told who it was trying to buy the rights to their name, and asked for a larger sum, just to see what would happen.  The plan backfired, they got no money, and Jack and the boys simply changed their name for the Aussie market.

The group's versatility is probably what I like most about them, so I'll try to show that off with these videos.

Consoler of the Lonely live at Glastonbury 2008.

Old Enough live at Bonnaroo 2008.

Blue Veins live at Bonnaroo 2008. Best part is when Jack White bails face first into an amp. Looks like he's crying when he leaves the stage.

Carolina Drama live from The Basement. One of the best closing songs I've ever heard. Check out the killer 'stache that Brendan Benson is rocking here.