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Setlist at The Bowery Ballroom New York, NY on Jun 17, 2001
Set One
Let’s Shake Hands
116
When I Hear My Name
105
Astro
98
Jack the Ripper
86
The Big Three Killed My Baby
169
Lord, Send Me An Angel
148
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
186
Hotel Yorba
142
I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman
172
Expecting
147
I Think I Smell a Rat
107
Wasting My Time
181
You’re Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)
124
Hello Operator
179
Stop Breaking Down
204
St. James Infirmary Blues
196
The Union Forever
213
Jolene
209
Screwdriver
287
Encore
Little Room
47
Fell In Love With a Girl
75
Apple Blossom
128
Look Me Over Closely
163
The Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY
Jun 17, 2001
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Setlist at The Bowery Ballroom New York, NY on Jun 17, 2001
Set One
Let’s Shake Hands
116
When I Hear My Name
105
Astro
98
Jack the Ripper
86
The Big Three Killed My Baby
169
Lord, Send Me An Angel
148
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
186
Hotel Yorba
142
I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman
172
Expecting
147
I Think I Smell a Rat
107
Wasting My Time
181
You’re Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)
124
Hello Operator
179
Stop Breaking Down
204
St. James Infirmary Blues
196
The Union Forever
213
Jolene
209
Screwdriver
287
Encore
Little Room
47
Fell In Love With a Girl
75
Apple Blossom
128
Look Me Over Closely
163
Show Notes
24 bit files are at 192 khz
June of 2001 would find the White Stripes playing three NYC gigs in as many nights and the sense of impending greatness felt all but predetermined. The appearance of the likes of Kate Hudson, Chris Robinson, Jon Spencer, Vincent Gallo and PJ Harvey in the crowds at these gigs seemingly confirmed that.
All celeb-spotting aside...Jack and Meg were expressly feeling weighed down by the extent of their press and promotion duties. There's a photo taken during this time in NYC where Jack is wearing an otherwise plain white t-shirt that says "New York Confuses Me." Written (at his request) by Meg, the outwardly transparent reckoning of his mounting frustration with publicity scheduling seems almost quaint in hindsight.
The recording here from the June 17th second night at the Bowery Ballroom is a straight knockout...nary an errant move to distract from the supernova captured on tape, all inside a room that was clearly packed beyond its legal limit of 575 patrons. Twenty years to the day since its recording feels like as perfect a time as ever to share this corker with the world.
The opening five songs are unrelenting in energy and bombast...as solid a barrage of introductory rock and roll the duo would ever seem to muster. A curveball of a groove in "The Big Three Killed My Baby" unfurls at the 1:46 point and gives the song an impressive swing to it.
Seven songs into the set and finally the band plays something off of "White Blood Cells." I find this funny because at that point, I feel like the album was essentially "out there" and released in all but name. "White Blood Cells" was all anyone could talk about! But that delayed unveiling here is indicative of what I consider an extra-sensorily perfect pacing and song selection this evening.
Just barely audible here is Miss Guy (Guy Furrow) from the Toilet Boys jumping on stage unannounced (and uninvited) to proffer intermittent backing vocals on "You're Pretty Good Looking." If It wasn't explicitly called out here...would anyone have noticed or even known about these fleeting couple of seconds during the glory days of George W. Bush's first term? Almost certainly not. And that is EXACTLY why I mention it.
Later I dig how "St. James Infirmary" crashes into the set with a heavily-accented guitar intro, only to morph into a subdued electric piano variation on the theme.
The entire evening is charmingly ended with "Look Me Over Closely" and while you can't tell here...another fan crashed the stage to dance to the song and it took all of the band's collective strength to not make eye contact through the curiously interpretive movements.
Confused or not, the love New York city showed the White Stripes at this point was clearly returned in the form of as solid a performance from 2001 that a fan could ever hope for, not dulled or diminished at all in the intervening two decades.
- Ben Blackwell
