The Raconteurs

The Raconteurs 7/21/19

Raconteurs 7:21:19

Portland, Oregon is beautiful in the summer so when I saw The Raconteurs were playing at the Edgefield I thought this would be a better place to see them then the scheduled stop in San Diego a week later. Not only would I get to see my family and friends but finally get to see a concert at the Edgefield since I vacated the city in 2004 and concerts did not start there in earnest until 2006.

Touted as “Portland’s Premiere Outdoor Venue” the venue is part of a greater 74 acre McMenamins property with an interesting history that now also includes restaurants, bars, a winery, a brewery, a distillery, golf courses, a movie theater, gardens, a spa & pool and over 100 guestrooms for lodging. Due to all this, tickets are usually in short supply and by the time I pulled the trigger on plane tickets the concert was sold out. There were overpriced tickets on StubHub as usual but I figured I would just wing it this time because worst case scenario if I did not get in I would still be able to hang out on the property drinking my favorite “Rubinator” beer.

Once Marvin caught wind of me making the trip up he decided to extend his weekend trip to Hood River for a bachelor party by hitchhiking to join Joe and I (Marvin is the guy who never has a ticket and somehow always gets into the concert by paying a very small amount of money for a ticket or just ends up getting in for free). Even though he could give two shits about The Raconteurs Joe already had a ticket because he was supposed to go with a gal he knew and since he only lives a couple miles from the Edgefield the plan was to meet at his place and leave earlier than usual to give us time to score tickets…but then we started drinking. We were having a good time at Joe’s and tickets came down to about $50 on StubHub later in the day so I just decided to get one so we could stay at Joe’s a little longer and not have to mess with it. Marvin on the other hand showed up to Joe’s semi-wasted without a ticket so we still ended up leaving a little early.

Once on the property we headed to the bar downstairs in the main building because apparently that is how Marvin occasionally meets people with extra tickets to unload. We succeeded in finding extra tickets but the guy wanted $40 and Marvin decided that was too rich for his blood. We also succeeded in downing a couple more unnecessary beers before Joe and I left Marvin to sort out his ticket situation. Long story short Joe and I ended up walking right into the venue through a curiously unguarded entryway without even showing our tickets to anyone. So much for all that crap trying to buy a ticket! I immediately sent Marvin a text about our revelation so he could do the same. Back to the beer line and toward the stage we went.

The Raconteurs were touring for their newest album Help Us Stranger that had just been released exactly a month earlier and ripped it up as per usual. The venue lived up the hype as the stage setup being enclosed by trees made for a vey intimate feel. Just as I was about to take a couple pictures for posterity I realized that since this was an event with Jack White on stage everyone who actually went in the way they were supposed to was forced to lock their phones in a bag the same way I had to the last time I saw Jack White solo. Knowing this would be a red flag to any security I wisely chose not to pull out my phone, which to Jack White’s credit actually created a better overall environment for the concert. We all predictably lost each other at some point and speaking of red flags I essentially got cut off from buying more beer since I kept asking for Terminator each time even though they had told me each successive time that they did not sell Terminator at the venue.

Marvin and I ended up finding each other right after the show and showed up back at Joe’s house before he did. Joe has a roommate so we rang the doorbell and after a minute the roommate answered the door with a gun in his hand as he thought we were randoms and did not want to be too careful! Joe showed up shortly after and we all had a laugh about almost getting shot. Good times!

SETLIST: Bored and Razed, Level, Old Enough, You Don’t Understand Me, Don’t Bother Me, Many Shades of Black, Thoughts and Prayers, Broken Boy Soldier, Now That You’re Gone, Hands, Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying), What’s Yours Is Mine, Sunday Driver, Consoler of the Lonely, Help Me Stranger, Blue Veins, Only Child, Carolina Drama, Steady, As She Goes

Raconteurs Help Us Stranger

KROQ Weenie Roast 5/17/08

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The KROQ Weenie Roast is an annual multi-artist music concert hosted by L.A.’s biggest rock station KROQ that was held at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater up until it was demolished in 2016. This was the first time Marvin, Bob, Bob’s then girlfriend or I had ever been to the now defunct cookie-cutter amphitheater. I did not have a ticket but Marvin has his ways and found me a ticket in the parking lot.

Ticket secured and however many beers later we walked in at the top of the hill to a band playing that looked like it was being fronted by a dark hairy mass with a guitar that resembled Kim Thayil from Soundgarden. Just as I was laughing with the boys about this I realized that the frontman was a beard clad Daron Malakian from System of a Down. I did not know the songs because Scars on Broadway were still a couple of months away from releasing their eponymous album but I was instantly hooked, especially once I saw his brother from System of a Down John Dalmayan drumming behind him.

Apparently we missed MGMT on the second stage but that is because none of us knew who they were yet. Seether was next on the main stage and I had literally seen them a month before this. No complaints here as they were just as rocking during the daylight hours as they were headlining their own show in the darkness.

The Raconteurs were touring for their newest effort Consolers of the Lonely that was released about two months before this. I had the pleasure of seeing them one other time in a tiny place after the first album (see The Raconteurs 7/19/06) and was more than ecstatic to see the new songs performed live. Jack White = Guitar God.

Apparently the only time I saw The Offspring about seven years prior to this was not long before they took a little hiatus, but now they were back to promote the album Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace that was about to be released. We did get a teaser of the new album less than two weeks before this show with the release of the single “Hammerhead.” Solid setlist, solid performance and so much energy that even the crowd in the very steep lawn section got moving. This was the first time I saw bonfires break out in the lawn section if that gives any indication of how rowdy the crowd was. If that’s not rock n’ roll then I don’t know what is.

SETLIST: Come Out and Play, The Kids Aren’t Alright, Hammerhead, All I Want, Gone Away, Staring at the Sun, Gotta Get Away, Want You Bad, You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid, Bad Habit, Pretty Fly (For a White Guy), (Can’t Get My) Head Around You, Self Esteem

We were still about four months away from the release of Death Magnetic at the time of this show and I had not seen Metallica since the very first time I saw them over 12 years prior at Lollapalooza 1996. Both the show and upcoming album marked the introduction of bassist Robert Trujillo but Metallica avoided playing any new material. This was a set of balls-to-the-wall epic Metallica classics and they looked happy to be out of the confines of the studio and back onto a stage.

SETLIST: Creeping Death, Fuel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Unforgiven, Wherever I May Roam, Harvester of Sorrow, The Memory Remains, Fade to Black, Master of Puppets, Battery, Sad but True, One, Enter Sandman, So What, Seek & Destroy

 

The Raconteurs 7/19/06

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I am obviously a fan of The White Stripes and got lucky enough to see them about a year before this show, but then Jack White took a left turn and made an album with some old friends. They formed a more traditional rock lineup and called themselves The Raconteurs. The resulting album is Broken Boy Soldiers that was released only two months before this show. I used to date a girl that had Rhapsody, which was my first exposure to streaming music. It was over at her place that I heard “Steady, As She Goes” for the first time and I got really excited once I identified the voice to be Jack White’s. Once I learned they were coming to San Diego I started bugging Marvin to go with me. For whatever reason he kept pussyfooting and I did not want to buy the tickets until he gave me the thumbs up. Long story short I was almost certain the show would sell out so I bought two tickets, of which I used one and sold one since Marvin flaked. Nowadays he just beats himself up over it kind of like he does for the time he decided to not see Alice In Chains with me back in 1993 but I digress… seeing these guys in a place as small as SOMA right after they released their debut album was a concert lover’s wet dream. Jack White was able to play a little looser since he had another guitar, bass, drums and Brendan Benson’s voice backing him up. They stretched out some of the songs but definitely played every song on the album mixed in with some covers.

A couple minutes of shitty footage from this show