I'm Lonely But I Ain't That Lonely Yet

So I went to see The White Stripes last night at The Greek Theater in Berkeley, it was a great show. The Greenhornes opened and they were o.k. I felt they were a little boring for such a big venue, but if I saw them in a smaller space the music probably would have felt less out of place. The set up for the new tour is great Jack and Meg had drums, two timpanis, Wurlitzer piano, organ, and Marimba all on stage. Some highlights for me include:

* All the songs Jack played on piano sounded amazing especially "I'm Lonely.." Which he did by himself in the encore.

* Meg rockin the Timpanis/triangle on "Passive Manipulation" not once but twice.

* I loved how uncomfortable all the tools and frat guys around me got when Jack did "Jolene". One guy tapped me on the shoulder after the song and was all, " So like he was singing that from like another point of view right, he wasn't really singing it about a guy?" And I was all, "It is actually a cover of a Dolly Parton song", he looked confused. I love how all these guys get so homophobic if a guy is singing a love song from a female perspective without changing the pronouns. That is what makes this a great cover.

*So Jack is keeping up his whole gay cowboy/ flamenco dancer look. I dug his hat and tight western flared pants. But the western jacket with the medals on it needs to go, it is way too Michael Jacksonesque.

* Spotted Jack's new wife model Karen Elson backstage, she was hard to miss with her red hair. Cute to see her supporting her man.

* Also Jack mentioned that he and Meg visited the Musee Mecanique on Fisherman's Wharf on Friday and took some pictures in the photo booth. I love that place and always take people there it has the coolest old timey games and exhibits.

* They closed with "Boll Weevil" and Jack mentioned that San Francisco was the first city he liked outside of Detroit, that was sweet.

*One other memorable part from the night was when Jack was singing " I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be friends" and the aforementioned tools behind me were all "Sweet man the Napoleon Dynamite theme song".

Ok but then these two radio promo balloons for 104.9 (San Jose staion) start bouncing toward the stage they hit Jack and land on the stage. Jack stops the song and yells "What the Fuck? Is this some sort of fucking radio promotion?". Then he grabs the balloons and throws them off backstage and continues with the song and everyone cheers. When he is done with the song, he says something like "So before some radio station decides to ban our music, I demand a written apology from them tomorrow morning for interrupting my song".

So ok those balloons are super annoying and lame and yes this is a White Stripes concert not Spring Break, but come on a "written apology"? Throwing the balloons off stage or better yet popping them would be rock and roll, but demanding a written apology is kinda throwing a hissy fit. But we all know Jack follows gentlemanly conduct and would expect others to do the same so I guess in his head a written apology would be the proper course of action.

Anyways, all in all it was a great show and they played some of my favs and a lot of good stuff off the new album. Hopefully, I can locate a set list from the show and post it up here soon.