Give the White Stripes honorary Canadian citizenship…


Cape Bonavista Lighthouse on Bonavista peninsula, Newfoundland, Atlantic Canada
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Originally uploaded by Gebuys.com Photopgraphy.

I almost fell out of my chair when I read the news in my morning paper:

“I told them when I handed in the album and we started talking about touring, I said, ‘Before anybody starts getting any ideas, this time we’re doing a solo tour of Canada, and I will not take no for an answer.’ I put my foot down before anyone even mentioned any shows we were going to play,” Jack [White of the White Stripes] said.

“I told our tour manager and our manager, ‘I want to play in every province and territory in Canada, and I want you guys to call up people and make sure that if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it. I don’t want to come home and say, well, we technically didn’t play every province because we didn’t play Prince Edward Island or something like that.’ You know what I mean?”

…”When you don’t take the easy way out, something interesting happens. Maybe we’ll have the best show of our lives in Nunavut. Maybe it’ll be a disaster, who knows?”

…”I want to push to see how far we can go with it. Okay, we’ve never done a tour of Canada. Well, let’s not take the easy way out and just play all the major cities. You play Winnipeg, Manitoba. What about the guys who live 200 miles north or whatever? I always think that if I lived in the Northwest Territories or the Yukon, it would be nice if bands came here once in a while.”

I gotta give ’em credit, I’ve been thinking about it all morning, and I can’t find the cynical angle here. If it was just about getting some publicity, they could do some beer company event one-off in Tuktoyaktuk like Metallica did. The logistics of that northern territory swing will be killer. And in addition to Iqaluit (population 6000) and the north they’re stopping in places like Thunder Bay and Glace Bay further east. Hell, even The Tragically Hip doesn’t tour like this. And this will be happening during prime summer touring season — they could be doing a succession of shows in the States or Europe for huge dollars. As it stands, it’ll be almost impossible for them to make money on this tour…

Maybe they saw Hard Core Logo and decided they wanted a first hand experience. My current theory is that somehow Stompin’ Tom Conners, esconced in his hidden bunker in an abandoned Sudbury nickle mine, has somehow gained remote control of Jack White’s mind, perhaps via advanced Mufferaw Ray Gun technology.

Anyhow, I hope to be at Deer Lake Park on June 24 to welcome the White Stripes to Canada in person.

In other music news, I am finally seeing LCD Soundsystem tonight, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been so excited about a show. If you don’t know them, the audio section on the website has pretty much all their stuff.

Just to bring it back home, at the end of their single North American Scum James Murphy’s last line as the track fades out is “don’t blame the Canadians…” which is a nice sentiment. Except lately I don’t feel like Canadians have much justification for our characteristic sense of moral superiority.

5 thoughts on “Give the White Stripes honorary Canadian citizenship…

  1. That’s pretty cool. Exactly a month after The Arcade Fire is playing Deer Lake Park…is that becoming the hip lower mainland venue?

    Hard Core Logo is one of my favourite movies, but it’s hard to imagine any sane musician watching those scenes from the prairies and thinking, “WOW, we’ve GOT to do that!” Great tongue-in-cheek theory, though.

    Yesterday I heard that Everclear is playing at a bar in Penticton in a couple of weeks. Yes, it’s been 10 years since I was really into them, and I probably should have long outgrown the pop-punk of my youth…but when they come to a small venue 10 minutes from my house (in a relative cultural backwater), I couldn’t really say no.

  2. Bjork is playing DLP as well. I was not aware of it as a venue before this year, and never seen a show there.

    HCL is the coolest. I mostly mentioned in hopes of prodding a couple people to see it. But believe it or not, I know people who dream of pulling off just one tour of the west… hardship be damned. I wish I could have hit the road with one of my bands, if only for a few weeks.

    Go Everclear. Always good to get out and rock in your hometown.

  3. Sadly, I’ve had little luck evangelizing with HCL — people pick up the cover in the video store and think “huh?” Not for everyone, I suppose.

    Yeah, I bought tickets for Everclear…couldn’t resist. Here’s hoping they play every song off So Long for the Afterglow, which has been in my Top-Five-Cheer-Me-Up albums for years, right up there with Weezer when I’m feeling down.

  4. Okay Jack, I understand the Canada thing only, but now it’s OCTOBer 31st, Halloween, and my 13th is comin up soon in Florida… PLEASE COME!!!!! More comments l8r

  5. Pingback: White Stripes, eh?

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