“This is my favorite place to play in the world.”
A more-fitting sentiment we cannot conjure and is the perfect stage banter quote from Jack White to introduce the triple-LP live recording culling the best of the best from the Raconteurs recent three night stand at the legendary Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma from October 2019.
As the Raconteurs are allegedly the first band to ever sell out three consecutive shows at Cain’s Ballroom, it was only fitting to mark the occasion by recording each night, culling only the best of each of those performances, and fusing them together for a career-spanning, masterwork of an album.
Highlighting recent entries in their catalog like the infectious “Help Me Stranger” and the whirling “Bored and Razed” while paying deference to momentous sing-alongs like “Carolina Drama” and “Steady, As She Goes” to absolutely mind-bending, room-levitating blues expression via “Blue Veins” and even then you’re only just scratching the surface.
Captured at the pinnacle of the band’s touring behind their chart topping album Help Us Stranger, the electrifying live performances place a raw, unbound energy behind the entire breadth of the band’s catalog, including gems from their 2008 LP Consolers of the Lonely and their 2006 debut Broken Boy Soldiers.
Housed in a magnificent tri-fold jacket and appropriating the Matthew Jacobson-designed artwork which highlights the Art Deco frieze of the Tulsa Fire Alarm building (which was used for the three Cain’s concert posters) and pressed on vibrant copper, green and black colored vinyl…the whole shebang is truly something to behold.
The fitting companion piece to this explosive 3xLP is the intimate performance of Raconteurs’ dual frontmen Brendan Benson and Jack White performing as a duo on July 9th 2019.
Shot at Third Man Records Cass Corridor storefront on White’s 44th birthday, the jam-packed room still only fitting 300 attendees, Brendan and Jack laid out sparse, explorative takes on not only Raconteurs songs, but other classics from their expansive back catalogs. Performances of Raconteurs faves like “Only Child” and “Now That You’re Gone” sound unlike any other version before or since, while the vibe propelling songs like the White Stripes “Sugar Never Tasted So Good” or Benson’s “Metarie” are reminiscent of times back when these two guys would just goof around in Detroit dive bars while a handful of uninterested patrons pretended to not be bothered by their racket.
About that…as a bonus to the mutli-camera, HD, Blu-Ray, 4k, 16-channel audio with super crystal clear capture of the above-mentioned performance, it felt fitting to tack on the ultra lo-fi, camcorder and condenser microphone capture of the first-ever performance of Jack White and Brendan Benson together. Playing for free at the Garden Bowl Lounge in Detroit on March 14th, 1999, the gig shows the two as if without a care in the world, having a blast and rolling through songs of which only TWO had been released by that point. An intimate, charming artifact of a simpler time.
And for the record, Pink Floyd’s “Fearless” was performed at BOTH of these shows, twenty years apart but no less magnificent.
For something a little bit different, we are offering a MYSTERY Raconteurs flexi-disc as our bonus item in this package. Let the speculation begin!
The Raconteurs Live at Cain’s Ballroom 3xLP setlist includes…
Bored and Razed
Blue Veins
Consoler of the Lonely
Help Me Stranger
Only Child
Sunday Driver
Now That You’re Gone
Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying)
Broken Boy Soldier
Carolina Drama
Thoughts and Prayers
Steady, As She Goes
Brendan Benson and Jack White Live at Third Man Records Cass Corridor July 9th, 2019 setlist:
Fearless (Pink Floyd)
Sugar Never Tasted So Good (The White Stripes)
Metarie (Brendan Benson)
Only Child (The Raconteurs)
Lucille (Little Richard)
Love Interruption (Jack White)
Now That You’re Gone (The Raconteurs)
Shine The Light on Me (The Raconteurs)
As Ugly As I Seem (The White Stripes)
Together (The Raconteurs)
We’re Going to Be Friends (The White Stripes)
Help Me Stranger (The Raconteurs)
Brendan Benson and Jack White Live at the Garden Bowl Lounge March 14, 1999 setlist:
I Fought Piranhas (The White Stripes)
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (The White Stripes)
Crosseyed (Brendan Benson)
Who’s to Say (Blanche)
You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket (The White Stripes)
The Same Boy You’ve Always Known (The White Stripes)
Do (The White Stripes)
Good to Me (Brendan Benson)
Sugar Never Tasted So Good (The White Stripes)
Fearless (Pink Floyd)
Suzy Lee (The White Stripes)
Candy Cane Children (The White Stripes)
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