Mar. 17, 2010 - Issue #752: Enomatic system
Under Great White Northern Lights
The White Stripes {recordings_bands_mg} Under Great White Northern Lights {/recordings_bands_mg}
Warner, 2010
4
A good live album has a difficult line to walk: it should cast the artist in a light that differs from what can already be heard on studio albums while also capturing performances that are worth preserving. While in a perfect world that would mean hitting record as a band takes the stage, that's rarely the case in real life. Innumerable groups turn in live performances that rely on technological support in order to keep the sound as close as possible to the record, leaving one to wonder why you wouldn't just put on the studio version instead.Then there's the simple fact that not every show—and often not every song within a single show—is so good, so compelling, that it should live on forever. And, in fact, the proliferation of live releases over the last decade or so has devalued the form more than ever. It seems as though nearly ever artist feels the need to document every single tour they carry out with a commemorative live release, either on CD or DVD. Sure, there are shows that are standouts, worthy of immortalization, but there are more live albums that are pieced together with the same sort of consideration as the best studio releases: which songs will make the best album?
In the White Stripes' case, the duo certainly can't be accused of releasing an abundance of live material: Under Great White Northern Lights is its first official live album, with a 2004 live DVD being its only other contribution to the field. And the Whites—Jack and Meg—have seen fit to pull only the most combustive takes from their 2007 Canadian tour, constructing an album that is racked from beginning to end with a series of performances that work together as a whole, each one as tough as the next.
True, it's not a tiny slice of time, a single-night experience captured on tape, but it's an accurate enough representation of the band's live show, and it might be better to consider it as a slice of that 2007 tour instead. Whatever piece of time that it captures, though, Northern Lights is ultimately an experience unto itself, with the various songs tied together by an unbreaking audience track, giving it the impression of a single show.
And what a show it is. The album is a throwback of sorts for the duo: over the years the White Stripes' studio work has become more layered, expanding the band's guitar-and-drums instrumentation with subtle additions. On stage, though, it's just Jack and Meg doing it all, and Northern Lights turns a spotlight on that fact, exposing the band's heart to be one that remains as unpolished and heavy thumping as it was when it began over a decade ago.
The White Stripes has evolved from its roots as a Detroit garage-rock band, and that's a welcome thing on the studio albums. The alternative would be for the duo to spin its wheels and regurgitate over and over what it's already done a fine job of capturing in its early days. That said, it feels pretty good to hear the band digging into its past on the stage, unafraid of leaving holes in the sound, or altering the approach—the revamped "Seven Nation Army" is a good example of this—in order to give songs that were bulked up in the studio a new life on the stage, relying upon the same tools that the band began with. V
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