The White Stripes are a rock band archetype. More than a decade into the duo's career, the songs and the image coalesced into a timeless package of essential listening. The band's that reach that status are few. Fewer than you would like.Jack and Meg White were lumped in with the crew of new garage rock bands of the new millennium. Ten years later, they are the last band standing. At least the last band still relevant. As Jack White explains in Under Great White Northern Lights, the White Stripes are a box. Everything the band does is confined to the rules of the box. In an era when technology is king, the White Stripes exist in a box. Timeless. Untouched by current technology, fashions and all the trappings that make the majority of today's pop stars boring and outdated within six months.
Jack and Meg have done well with their box.
Under Great White Northern Lights is the concert/road film that follows the White Stripes as they take their box across Canada on a tour that reaches every corner of the country. The tour also marked the band's tenth anniversary show.
To reach every province of Canada, Jack and Meg played the standard concert halls, as well as bowling alleys, town squares, restaurants, boats, transit buses and more.
Director Emmett Malloy does exceptional work capturing the raucous Stripes on stage. Jack and Meg whip a tremendous frenzy when in full bloom, but they also scale back for quiet, tender moments. Behind the scenes, Malloy's camera explores small town Canada as well as the White Stripes history.
Jack and Meg are exactly how you would expect them. The music is a natural, truthful extension of them and their relationship. At times cranky, often endearing, Jack and Meg are easy to root for. Meg is the star of the show. You wait and listen closely for her every word. They are so few, and often subtitled. On stage she has the same aloof cool, but breaks through as thunder on the drums. She remains a mystery.
As much as you might think the structure Jack White gives to the White Stripes – red, white and black colors, the number three, out of tune guitars, vintage amps – is pretentious and counterproductive to what a rock band should be. That structure is exactly why the band is compelling. The structure, limitations and rules forced White to become an essential musician and performer.
Under Great White Northern Lights is a pitch perfect concert tour documentary. It's the movie that Rattle & Hum could have been if it included humans.
