Chris DeLine

Roughly 150 people recently attended the grand re-opening of Third Man Records in Nashville, and roughly 150 people were treated with a gift like no other. The gift? The crowd that night was party to the first ever public performance from the Dead Weather. The catch? The Dead Weather are a band comprised of Jack White (The White Stripes/Raconteurs), Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence (Raconteurs/Greenhornes). Not a bad gift if I do say so myself.

Completely flipping the script on those who thought White was in need of some much-needed rest after his tired performance on Conan O’Brien’s final Late Show (myself included), White sounds anything but in the band’s first two songs. The group’s lead single, “Hang You From The Heavens,” rolls by with a harder, snarling guitar, and a grind that offers up the perfect soundtrack for a two-day tequila binge. The song’s b-side is an oddball compared to “Heavens,” for it’s a churning cover of Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?” that is plastered in reverb and sounds a bit like the Raconteurs—had the band been around in the mid-1960s. A full length release is expected for June.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]