WINNIPEG - Their red-and-white colour scheme would have come in handy a day earlier, but alt-rock icons The White Stripes still made for a perfect end to the Canada Day weekend last night.
Making good on their promise to headline a show in each province and territory in our home and native land, charismatic frontman Jack White and his preternaturally cuddly ex-wife Meg delivered a rousing rock 'n' roll spectacle that should endear them to Canuck fans even more than their self-styled mythology already has.
That same mythology, by the way, would have you believe Meg is actually Jack's older sister, which is how he introduced her to the surprisingly sparse crowd of 6.000 last night, shortly after the two took to the stage for a sped-up version of Blue Orchid, the first single from 2005's Get Behind Me Satan disc.
Her head bopping sweetly from side to side -- and a blissed-out grin on her face -- Meg more than matched Jack's frantic pace as he darted maniacally across a stage tricked out all in red.
A series of microphones was set up in the corners of the stage so that Jack's trademark yowl came in loud and clear no matter where he was, whether bringing I'm Slowly Turning Into You to its climactic end by hissing the last verse directly into Meg's face, or ducking over to a bank of keyboards for some otherworldy solos on the new single Icky Thump.
Jack gave a thumbs-up to Winnipeg's public transportation system before strapping on a white acoustic guitar to bang out the rootsy rave-up Hotel Yorba, turned the slow-building Little Bird into an extended solo session and gave new meaning to the term "country gothic" with a downright spooky cover of Dolly Parton's Jolene.
He was equally awesome on show-stoppers like The Hardest Button to Button and I Want to be the Boy Who Warms Your Mother's Heart, and Meg managed to get in on the action, taking centre stage to handle vocals on the sublimely sexy In the Cold, Cold Night.
With just the two of them in the band -- and Meg rooted to the same spot for much of the night -- you'd think the Stripes would have a harder time coming up with a visual component that's even half as interesting as their bluesy hybrid of garage-rock and lo-fi Americana. But by the time they came back to encore with blistering spins through Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, We Are Going to be Friends, Burt Bacharach's I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself and their monster smash Seven Nation Army, you better believe they had the full attention of everyone.
Alabama troubadour Dan Sartain opened with 45 minutes of punky surf-rock and psychobilly freakouts, and while it can't be easy serving as warm-up act for one of the biggest bands in the world, Sartain's hard-driving rockers (not to mention his retro/skeezy pompadour-and-pencil moustache combo) made for a great match.
