Wireless and the White Stripes

The Wireless festival - as I think I wrote last year is less a festival than a big afternoon gig, and aptly enough the headliners tonight blew everything else out of Hyde Park and reeling into the night. It is certainly a better organised event than the similarly commercial V festival but its another one where the music is pretty much the only distraction.

With that in mind, Jack and Meg showed they have mastered the blues as they played an exceptional set of down and dirty rock. The noise Jack squeezes out of his guitar is sensational. A sonic assault that has real power and beauty in equal measures; while his singing is soaked in the tradition of a great many blues men - just dripping with emotion and screaming with sheer energy that the music provokes.
It wass one of the best gigs I have seen in a long long while; visually the purely red and white video screens and the silhouette of Meg and her drum reflected on the backdrop of the stage made a dramatic impact - and you never felt like the two of them were doing anything but filling the stage.

It was a monumental performance, from Hotel Yorba through to the new single Icky Thump, and their profound cover of Jolene. They finished on Seven Nation Army and it became clear that White has possibly sold his soul to the blues - I think he got a good deal.