“Icky Thump” tour to play Madison Square Garden and L.A. Forum

By Tom Wright

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/1/07 — The White Stripes, or at least the Official White Stripes Extreme Shop Makeover Team, are turning the former West Hollywood Tower Records into a specially constructed “Icky Thump Records” store for a small, promotional show. Only the first 200 fans who buy their new album, Icky Thump, at that very location beginning midnight, June 18 will make it inside the band’s first Los Angeles show since December, 2005. If the Whites build it, people will camp.

The White Stripe surprised 700 local fans with a charity show at The Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park England. They had everything buttoned down in Crofton this week for a full-blown gig, proceeds of which will go to the Chelsea Pensioners appeal and charities supported by London’s Pearly Kings and Queens.

The show itself is on Wednesday, June 20 at 7 p.m. If you miss it, which you probably will, there are future dates (with the Cold War Kids) listed on the White Stripes Official Site. And if you’re the kind of person who loves everything White Stripes (and even owns a self-airbrushed White-Stripes pillowcase) then look forward to hearing much more exclusive info about them from Paste in the future.

The White Stripes – Jack White who plays guitar and Meg White who plays drums – did a photo shoot at the ballroom about four years ago.

Tour Dates: http://www.pollstar.com/tour/searchall.pl?By=All&Content=the+white+strip&go_green.x=13&go_green.y=12

“Ecky thump!”, an expression of surprise in Lancashire parlance. At the London show, Detroit native Jack told the Rivoli audience. “Meg and I are really happy to be here. Who likes tunes more than Great Britain.”

Since their 1999 straight-from-the-garage debut, Jack and Meg White have upped the intensity and creativity on each of their five albums. The pseudo-siblings deliver again on the sixth, “Icky Thump” – a raucous, foot-stomping record that makes a satisfying follow-up to 2005′s folk-tinged “Get Behind Me Satan.”

Where “Satan” was subdued, “Thump” stands up and demands attention, said one reviewer.

The slide guitar is snarly and unforgiving on “Catch Hell Blues.” “Little Cream Soda” is fueled by a driving bassline and heavy-metal riffs. The playful “Rag and Bone” is good ol’ rocking blues, and “Bone Broke” is so stripped down, it could have been on the band’s first album.

The Stripes always inject their music with a shot of unpredictability: they change tempo mid-song, punctuate acoustic tracks with episodes of heavy distortion and fearlessly sample from a range of influences and instruments.

They turn to tango trumpets for a Latin-flavored cover of Patti Page’s “Conquest” and weave bagpipes and mandolin through the Celtic-inspired “A Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn.”

Jack White shows his Zeppelin roots on “I’m Slowly Turning Into You” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told),” channeling Jimmy Page and Robert Plant on chops and vocals.

She said she didn’t know why the White Stripes were interested in Pearly Kings and Queens.

“I hope to find out though.”

Pearly Kings and Queens Society was founded in London in 1875 by an orphan called Henry Croft.

He worked as a road sweeper around one of London’s markets and collected pearly buttons that fell from the trousers of the market traders – costermongers – who sewed pearly buttons on their clothes to denote their trade.

He began doing charity work in London’s hospitals and workhouses. He sewed lots of the pearly buttons on to his clothes to draw attention to his work.

The White Stripes, now 10 years old, found fame in Britain in their early days with a stripped-down take on the blues.

White last year married supermodel Karen Elson, who comes from Oldham in Lancashire. The title of the latest album is based on “ecky thump!”, an expression of surprise in Lancashire parlance.

Jack told the Rivoli audience. “Meg and I are really happy to be here. Who likes tunes more than Great Britain.”