I went to go see The Raconteurs tonight at the Uptown Theater.  It was my second time seeing the band, but it was the first time I’d seen them on their own outside of a festival environment.  The first time I saw them (at Austin City Limits in ‘06), though, I was really impressed so my expectations were pretty high this time around.  Even with high expectations, though, they still found a way to rock my face off.

The main attraction of The Raconteurs is Jack White, the frontman of the White Stripes.  I, as well as many music fans, consider him to be somewhat of a living legend, and I was pretty pumped to get to see him again.  I’ve also became a big fan of their other singer, Brendan Benson, back in college when he was releasing music as a singer/songwriter.   Luckily, I have some pretty die-hard friends (Rachel, props to you) who got there right as the doors opened so I was about five people from Mr. White and Mr. Benson the entire night.  Needless to say, I was pretty giddy.

These guys completely rocked it from the get-go and never stopped.  What I found interesting was how comfortable Jack White seemed to be just being another member of the band.  When I saw the White Stripes a while ago, he was one of the craziest frontmen I’d ever seen.  With his band, though, he lets other people take center stage.  You’d think someone as popular as he would try to steal the spotlight, but he only did it when it was his turn to shine (most notably on their bluesier songs which is where he’s always been best). There is also not a shortage of man-love between the two frontmen.  Both from Detroit, their friendship was pretty well-known long before The Raconteurs was ever thought of, and Jack White would sometimes even play covers of Benson’s songs during White Stripes shows.  You can tell they have fun putting their energy together on stage.

The only negative thing about the otherwise amazing show was the crowd.  It’s been a while since I’ve been at a larger rock show where half the audience is comprised of teenage idiots.  Tonight definitely was that, and it was obvious that a) many of them decided that getting drunk for the very first time would be a good idea for the show and b) going to a rock show and starting a most pit would be, like, totally awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I love being in a crowd that really gets into things, but these kids were pushing, throwing elbows, and just being flat out annoying for a large part of the show.  It’s never fun trying to watch a good band when you are having to pay attention to how you stand so you don’t get pushed over.  That being said, it was a great night of loud music.

I took a couple of videos during the show, as well.  Here they are:

“Top Yourself”:

The end of “Rich Kid Blues”: