The Dead Weather @ The Roundhouse, Camden 28/06/2010

The other day I woke up to a text message from my friend saying she had a spare ticket to see The Dead Weather that very night...I couldn't really refuse such an offer, so I accepted despite it meaning that I can't really afford to eat for a week! Anyway, I arrived in Camden and turned a corner....in doing so I happened bumped into JACK WHITE himself and the rest of the band....and he was a very polite man...but more on that later!

The Dead Weather played some of the freshest and rawest blues I think I'v ever heard, mixed with huge amounts of distorted rock riffs and drum fills that come out of nowhere and blow the speakers apart. Allison Mosshart fronts the band with an edge and sexiness that only adds to the musical outflow and her tough voice accompanies the rough music perfectly, Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs) and Dean Feritia (Queens Of The Stone Age) flank the stage with enough riffs and and mad guitar and synth sounds that bring what is essentially music form 1920s sounding as if it coming from way of in the future. Then Jack White manages to lead the band from behind a drum kit that he literally seems to beat up. Lending both backing and lead vocals he (as always) adds a whole other layer to an already amazingly accomplished act. For several tracks he takes centre stage and reveals his remarkable guitar skills and when he shares the mic with Allison to duet on 'Will There Be Enough Water?' it's a moment where the music literally takes everything over and transcends styles and genres and becomes something else entirely.

By the time the set closes with the almost punk song 'Treat Me Like Your Mother' The Dead Weather have proved that they can take aspects from all great American music (blues, country, rock, punk and even something that kinda sounded like angry hip-hop...in a good way) and showed that that is what great bands do. Make something you've heard before sound like something you've never heard before!

Also.... if you get three hairy dudes, one wiry sexy lady, put them all in black and put a killer light show behind them...it wins!

Here are some photos from the show....apologies the for crudeness of the images....BlackBerry novice I am!

Here is very rough video (in three parts) of 'Will There Be Enough Water?' from the gig.....I'm sure it wont convey the real thing accurately but it's just a snippet of how it went down!

Photos and Videos By Toby King