White Stripes rock Saskatoon bowling alley
Jeanette Stewart, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, July 03, 2007
It was 7:30 p.m. Saturday night when Allison Hunter got the call.
At first she thought it was a joke, but when the White Stripes’ management called to confirm, Hunter knew she would be hosting the internationally-acclaimed rock duo in a free surprise show at the Saskatoon bowling alley her family built 30 years ago.
But how to get the word out? Through text messaging, phone calls, Facebook and e-mails, Hunter gathered a crowd of just less than 200 by 3 p.m. Sunday.
“I wasn’t sure it was for real until they were setting up today,” Hunter said.
The message: White Stripes, free show, Eastview Bowl.
Fifteen minutes before show time, the building was quiet. A few bowlers still played, but a small beaten up white drum kit with a swirled red and white design, Jack White’s trademark guitar, a couple amplifiers and a red synthesizer at the far end of the building confirmed the tip was no joke.
Dressed in black suits, red collared shirts and fedoras with red feathers, The White Stripes’ crew moved silently, setting up sound equipment and picking out the perfect bowling ball for Jack White.
By 3 p.m., the space between the lanes and the wall was full. First-comers sat in the stylized 1970s plastic benches in front of the lanes. Others sat atop the coat racks, and more packed into the bar overlooking the lanes.
At 3:02 p.m., Jack and Meg White appeared from a side door beside the lanes, casually swinging bowling pins and cutting across the lanes to their waiting instruments, followed closely behind by a camera man dressed in the road crew’s uniform of black suit and fedora.
Without a single word to the onlookers, Jack White — wearing his trademark tight red pants and black T-shirt, long mop of hair hanging loosely down — launched into a bluesy rendition of "Red Bowling Ball Ruth."
The respectful onlookers stayed seated in their bowling benches, and the rest of the crowd stayed back, taking hundreds of pictures with their camera phones, puny flashes pinging off the polished wooden lanes.
With her sweet, shy smile, Meg White provided the thudding accompaniment to Jack White’s screaming slide guitar. The duo followed the first song with "Let’s Shake Hands," "Lafayette Blues," "I Fought Piranhas" and "Let’s Build a Home."
At the end of the less than 15-minute set, Jack White continued to play, stepping out into the crowd and grabbing a bowling ball. His first throw was a gutter ball. Pausing only to strum a couple chords to fuel the guitar’s electric hum, he threw another, leaving only two pins standing.
And then, it was over. While the audience chanted for more, the road crew began packing the equipment and the crowd resigned itself to talking about what it had just seen.
“We just love them,” said Daryl-Anne Fletcher, 22. Dressed head to toe in red, black and white and with a tattoo of Jack White’s red guitar on her leg, Fletcher travelled to the show from Calgary with her husband. She went to the group’s shows in Burnaby, Edmonton and Calgary.
Although there was no chance for autographs at the impromptu show, fan Ryan Leslie will get to take home the bowling ball Jack White used during the performance. Leslie was instrumental in getting the word out and friend Hunter will let him take home the souvenir. “I’ll put it besides the ticket stubs, and the CDs and the DVDs and everything else.”
© CanWest News Service 2007
It's good to see that Jack and Meg are as playful, eccentric and willing to experiment as ever. Current favourites:
I'll have to stroll over and say hi before the gig starts.
At least it's a good riff.
Section 122, row 15, seat 1.
