Stacked Actors

Tuesday I went to see The Raconteurs in concert at Nashville’s Hallowed Holy Temple of Music…The Ryman Auditorium.

We were treated to the Jack White’s Nashville group playing on their home turf in Nashville’s best venue at the end of a pretty extensive summer tour schedule.

The Upside:

Great Stage Set-up….Very minimalistic, not over-kill, not under-kill.  (didn’t play with in-ears…only wedge monitors)

Great Stage backdrop and Lights.

Brandon Benson sounded AMAZING.

Huge energy from the band while remaining very very tight!

Huge energy from the crowd…everyone REALLY dug it.

Amazing three piece burnt orange suit worn by Jack White donned with bone decorations….even ribs on the vest.

The Downside:

A sick Jack White….one of the main reasons to see this band was to watch Jack kill some stuff but his voice wasn’t up to par.

A VERY short set…Clocked in at around 1 hour and 10 minutes….this included about a 5 min. set break, for what I paid for tickets this was truly disappointing.

A poor mix…The band fought it all night…I hate it b/c I understand how this affects the band….Jack’s guitar was terribly washed and overpowered by Benson’s…any key parts that were important were muffled…the drummer’s kit was uber-muffled and had NO definition other than kick and snare

The dude two rows in front lighting up a joint….yeah, that was annoying….this is the Ryman dude.

Ok, so all in all, the downside kind of made this show a little to be desired.  I’m guessing the boys would like to take another stab at rocking this venue.  I’m almost certain that the impromptu set break was to TRY and fix some sound issues.  Jack seemed visibly frustrated while attempting to adjust things with his guitar and his tech came out to make some adjustments as well.  Same thing happened while he was playing keys on one song.

To be honest…and this may sound bad…but this was the worst mixed show I’ve seen at the Ryman which is usually known for impecible sound.  That being said, this was a great show.  You can’t really blame the band becuase really they gave a stellar performance even with Jack White being under the weather.

Overall, I give it a 3.5 out of 5.

For your weekend…watch this clip of the boys killing a performance for Jools Holland: