Live Review: The Dead Weather @ Kool Haus, Torotno 07/22/09

It’s to Jack White’s credit that his new band, The Dead Weather, can headline the Kool Haus a mere eight days after releasing their debut album.

Although all four members have their own musical lives outside the band — singer Alison Mosshart with The Kills, guitarist Dean Fertita with Queens Of The Stone Age and White’s fellow Raconteur Jack Lawrence on bass — it was clear that White’s track record and onstage magnetism were what brought most of the crowd out on this night. 

But everyone had to wait while New Brunswick, N.J.’s Screaming Females played a blazing set of Be Your Own Pet-meets-Sleater Kinney punk rock.

Lead singer Marissa Paternoster, the only female member of the band, did her fair share of screaming in a baby doll dress in between loopy sounding comments from the stage. But despite the poor onstage chatter, the trio had the audience in the palm of their hands from the first squall of Paternoster’s guitar. Watch out for these kids. 

Between sets, suit- and- fedora-clad roadies assembled The Dead Weather’s gear while garage and blues rock played over the P.A., setting the stage for the band’s emergence.

They hit the stage to rapturous applause with White carrying an animal skull on a stick. But from note one, it was clear that while White was the catalyst for much of the crowd’s interest in the band, The Dead Weather are very much the and the Alison and Dean show live. 

Mosshart spent more time standing on the monitors than she did the stage and was a magnetic presence throughout the night. Meanwhile, Fertita, flanked by an arsenal of keyboards and guitars, laid down screeching riffs and skronking keyboard licks.

Inevitably, White sauntered out from behind his drum kit to take the mic, but for the most part he played it cool, satisfied to anchor the group while Mosshart and Fertita did their thing. 

The sprawling, jam-based nature of the Horehound recording sessions arguably came out a bit too unfocused on record, but they’re perfectly suited to the stage. Given the group are only one album deep, they played a short set rolling out pretty much everything they’ve put to wax.

The quartet returned to the stage for a three song encore that culminated in a rousing version of “Treat Me Like Your Mother” and their Bob Dylan cover “New Pony,” before taking a bow and walking off stage to the opening notes of “Goodnight Irene.” 

Though White will no doubt continue to cast a long shadow over the rest of The Dead Weather’s members, tonight the four band members proved themselves to be far more than the summation of their parts, or a rock star’s vanity project. They are in fact a band with their own sound and personality. And these days, both are rare commodities.

“Treat Me Like Your Mother”

Related Post:

Stone Aged Keyboardist Speaks

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• if the music’s loud enough: Top 5 Gigs of 2008