Concert review: The Dead Weather at the House of Blues in Dallas (October 5)

by Graciela Razo of North Texas Daily

With the high-intensity debut release Horehound, The Dead Weather promised an energetic show Monday at the House of Blues in Dallas.

A blues-rock side project that includes Jack White of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age, and Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes, The Dead Weather pulled a large crowd together ready to witness the band’s live performance.

The opening act was folk rock musician Imaad Wasif, whose solid set of quick-paced songs warmed up a restless crowd.

Wasif included his work that will be on the “Where the Wild Things Are” soundtrack as well as singles from his upcoming album release.

As the lights dimmed, all four Dead Weather members walked onto the stage carrying the neck and head of a taxidermic giraffe above their heads. Waiting for a moment as they stared back at the audience while the crowd cheered and yelled, the musicians walked to the back of the stage and placed the giraffe right behind White’s drum kit.

The show began with Mosshart making a personal stage out of the tops of amplifiers and shrieking her lyrics while bending over backward.

Despite her antics, the other members were far from being camouflaged into the sea of blue lights.

White sat at his kit with drumsticks becoming a white blur of force while Fertita roared through solos and kept rhythm on the keyboards.

Lawrence stood to the side of the stage, always bobbing his head and bursting out into bass lines that vibrated through the venue’s floor.

The Dead Weather played a 90-minute set of all 11 songs off of Horehound, as well as a cover of Van Morrison’s “You Just Can’t Win” when White took to the microphone stand to belt out his signature vocals.

The Dead Weather then slowed down with the song “Will There Be Enough Water?” the absolute highlight of the show.

White picked up a guitar and hammered through solo after solo while sharing the microphone with Mosshart, smoking a cigarette, as Lawrence serenely took to the drum kit. Fertita played backup for the extended version of the song.

When the band walked offstage, the crowd shouted for an encore, bringing the four members back out to play their most popular songs and ending with “Treat Me Like Your Mother.”

Afterward, The Dead Weather members stood in front of the audience, bowed, then picked up the giraffe they walked in with and left the stage.