The Raconteurs

My roommate often listens to me talk about upcoming shows and doesn’t have any idea who I am talking about. This certainly is not to say that he isn’t into music because he is, and actually thanks to Pandora, who isn’t. I think Pandora’s biggest benefit is allowing you to drop some obscure band name and then say “Oh, they are kinda like Underoath, you should check them out.” or whoever you have your station set to and you sound so informed. Thank you Pandora. So, when I told James that I was thinking about going to a band called The Raconteurs he was excited to say that he did actually know who they were. I had never heard of them, but he seemed to like them so I told him that we were going and he needed to empty that date on his calendar. I downloaded their album Consoler of the Lonely, and gave it a listen. I liked it a lot. The lead singer is Jack White of the White Stripes which was a large contributor to both of their back to back shows in Portland being sold out weeks prior to the date. The Raconteurs remind me of The Doors, and little bit of The Who, sometimes a dash of Styx but all in all it’s a great sound that we haven’t heard for quite some time in main stream music. I believe that along with White’s star power it’s a large part of their appeal. The show was great. We showed a little later than planned but still caught Jack White in all his Super Star glory. Even without White’s fame, I think the band was great, probably because I could care less about the White Stripes. They sounded pretty good live, certainly didn’t quite live up to the album, but they made up for it in stage presents. I got some video, but wasn’t in the mood to push my way through a capacity crowd at the Roseland so all of it is from a distance. In the end, thumbs up to The Raconteurs.


The Raconteurs from Aaron Nicholls on Vimeo.