Just got back from Raconteurs!

I am in love with these mother-fucking Raconteurs!- (Yay! A Snakes on a Plane and Stephen Colbert reference in the opening line!) or maybe just my lens (well only for one shot). Anyhow, tonight was insanely amazing! It's been a long time since I've seen a new show that was that great!
Wasn't gonna get there in time to catch the opener Kelley Stoltz, but happened upon an mp3 and really liked it. Sadly due to lines at the will call, I missed the first three songs and most of his set, but so enjoyed him and made it up in time for him to make up some lyrics on the spot about how much he likes Portland, but won't move up because he knows how much people in Oregon love "when people from California move up and take all the cheap housing." Cue roaring audience.

Opening their set with a cover of Loretta Lynn's 'Portland, Oregon', the Raconteurs paraded on stage to rabid applause with Jack donning a cowboy hat for his entrance. For the first song all the photos came out red, blurred, and dark no matter how I readjusted the shutter speed or aperture. I even attempted long exposure because clearly that is a great choice for concert photography. I didn't want to go into menu because I'd have to look down at my camera for more than two seconds and there was no way it was the internal settings. Then between the end of the first song and the beginning of the second I went to menu and saw I had shot it all on 100 speed because I am a "photographer."
Jack's vocals veered between wailing and harmonic, and at times the two styles intercepted each other, much like the constant interception between Jack and Brendan who shared a mic twice and broke into feeding off each others guitars almost every song.

They covered Nancy Sinatra's Audio Bully's 'Bang Bang' as the second of the two covers that their set consisted of. I don't think at least half the audience had ever heard of the song as the original isn't much of a national treasure and that single wasn't released here (much like Elton John and Tupac's elegant 'Ghetto Gospel' never got stateside release-I have to wonder why not-haha).
The highlight of their set I would have to say was album title track 'Broken Boy Soldiers'. Oh it was so good!

There were a lot of blues jammy moments-but not in the borderline or off the deep end gratuitous-ness of actual jam bands.
Changed up their set list and instead of opening their encore with 'Steady, As She Goes', they near closed with it, playing it just before current single 'Hands'.
There were a lot of frat-boy looking guys there doling out plenty of air drumming and cheering during 'Steady', but it was just so great not to harp on who was making up the audience but the fact that everyone was enjoying themselves to the nth degree. It was an amazingly positive vibe the whole night and I just kept noting how the Raconteurs were really playing themselves out-it didn't seem like a tour show, more like a long awaited one-off after a two year hiatus-that much energy and that much passion.
Oh it was so good!

Nothing could ruin the vibe of the night, not even the lighting tech, who while he did deliver some amazing lighting, said some remarkably rude comments to me before the start of their set. And some bad luck plaguing me from the most legitimately requested photo pass I have ever requested. Grant summed it up that instead of attempting it with a publication I actually contribute to, we should go back to "when we were lying cheating bitches" and this time only up the ante more by claiming to be from the New York Times. Or claiming to be either Monica Guza, Tracy Barry, Brenda Braxton, Rhonda Shelby, Andy Carson, Rod Hill, or Matt Zaffino.