White Stripes

The only real thrill of Under Blackpool Lights, the Detroit blues-garage act's first DVD, is getting a closer-than-normal look at the freaky faces Jack White makes when he's singing. Over the course of these 26 tunes, filmed on a typically grainy stock at Blackpool's cavernous Empress Ballroom, the singer-guitarist scowls,...

By Mikael Wood

December 16, 2004

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The only real thrill of Under Blackpool Lights, the Detroit blues-garage act's first DVD, is getting a closer-than-normal look at the freaky faces Jack White makes when he's singing. Over the course of these 26 tunes, filmed on a typically grainy stock at Blackpool's cavernous Empress Ballroom, the singer-guitarist scowls, grimaces, frowns, winces, leers and even flashes a creepy smile or two. There's some greasy slide-guitar action thrown in for the band's seven-member gearhead nation and an amped cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" that anyone who's seen the White Stripes live has doubtless heard. But for viewing at home, this document's only slightly more dramatic than the Stripes' awkward-if-endearing turn in Jim Jarmusch's recent Coffee and Cigarettes. Rent out the local IMAX and crank the shit up to 11, though, and you might have an evening on your hands.

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