White Stripes Were Red Hot

Mike and I drove directly to Cleveland from work on Wednesday night. We did not pass GO, we did not collect $200, but we did stop for a quick bite at Quiznos (mmmmmmm....toasty) before hitting the road. Our destination was the State Theatre in downtown Cleveland where we saw the White Stripes, who was even more amazing than the last time we had the opportunity to see them 2 years ago.

Their opening act this time around was a band from Cincinnati called the Greenhornes who were infinitely better than their last opening band, Whirlwind Heat. When we saw Whirlwind Heat, I literally kept wiping the side of my face to check to see if my ears had been bleeding. The Greenhornes looked really young but had a good, bluesy, roadhouse sound and were overall a good warm up.

After an excruciatingly long intermission, the White Stripes came on and tore right into "Blue Orchid". "Brother and sister" barrelled from song to song with great energy. Some of the highlights of the night were the sing-a-long "Hotel Yorba", the haunting "As Ugly As I Seem", and the suprisingly electrifying "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet). I was a little disappointed that they did not play "Little Ghost" and Mike was a little disappointed that they did not play "We're Going To Be Friends", two of our favorites. However, there is no way that we could have even thought about complaining, especially when they came out and ripped through a six song encore that was more like a second set. With all of the instruments that were laid out on stage (four guitars, a mandolin, a drum set, bongos, marimbas, piano) it's hard to believe that only two people play it all and make all that big sound, but they do and they do it well.