Quoting widely from the box set insert about Live in Las Vegas backstory:

In the midst of the run of shows in September 2003, a promotional idea was cooked up by the team at V2 Records – 40 or so fans would be flown out to the White Stripes show at the Joint (at the Hard Rock Casino) in Las Vegas, get a meet-and-greet with the band, and then some time afterward be presented with a vinyl pressing of that evening’s show.

The original pressing is sparse to say the least. With no printed artwork, tracklisting or even credits “The White Stripes Live In Las Vegas” rubber-stamped on the labels is the only true identifier on this record. A dip through the original paperwork shows only 100 copies were ever pressed, all at United Record Pressing in Nashville.

Consider this snapshot of the night…Josh Hartnett, Steve Mcdonald, Darryl Hannah, Scott Caan and Josh Klinghoffer were all there, not necessarily together or gambling. Soledad Brothers and Whirlwind Heat tore it up as the opening bands, and the Stripes’ set itself was spectacular. The unpredictable moments electrify…an off-the-cuff take of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” to a mid-set abandonment of “Offend In Every Way” because of its reliance upon the D minor chord [ed: relevant because two months prior Jack White was in an accident that injured his hand and he was at that time unable to play D minor chords] and an opportune tease of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” imbue the evening with spontaneous joy. Songs from Elephant had taken shape as muscled, taut beasts of energy as the blasting jolt of pure rock and roll lava via “The Hardest Button To Button” testifies. All these factors make this night stick out as measurably better than the rest.

The White Stripes sound fantastic, of course, leading off with Meg’s gigantic sound on the opener “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” and continuing on through the million-song set (OK not quite but it’s a lot of tracks). Jack’s guitar work on “I Want to Be the Boy” is bendy beautiful and the rollicking southern blues guitar on Son House’s classic “Death Letter” is over-the-top fabulous. Plus we get the early teaser of the smash “Seven Nation Army” and a bunch of early-Stripes favorites like “You’re Pretty Good Looking,” “Hotel Yorba” and “Fell in Love with a Girl.” Can’t even imagine how amazing it must have been to be one of those 40 folks at the Hard Rock Casino, and did they even realize how lucky they were?

Not from the Vegas show (there isn’t anything out there on YouTube) but “Dead Leaves” from Coachella the same year:

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I missed writing about this yesterday on its actual anniversary because my day was super-busy and any Third Man Vault package is a commitment. Live at the Detroit Institute of Arts is no exception. The two set performance consists of a whopping 33 songs, many from their 2001 LP White Blood Cells like my favorite “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” plus other great tracks like “Hotel Yorba,” “Little Room” and “Fell in Love With a Girl.” They included songs from their earlier albums The White Stripes (“I Fought Piranhas” and the show closer “Screwdriver“) and De Stijl (“Hello Operator,” “Apple Blossom,” “You’re Pretty Good Looking For a Girl“). Some of the best moments are the sprinkles of Detroit-rock covers during the concert: Iggy Pop’s “I’m Bored,” The Gories “Omologato” and – best of the best – MC5’s “Looking at You.” While I’m not going to watch it today (that would be even more of a commitment than I can reasonably make though most of the tracks linked here are from the Institute Arts concert so I guess I’ve seen a bit of it already), the DVD has the same track listing so it will be a treat to get the full visual of this incredible performance – the venue is supposed to be stunning: a Beaux Arts-style visual arts museum; Jack White urged the audience to check out exhibits by Detroit artists during the intermission.

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The second LP is from a live show at the Magic Stick in Detroit on December 31st, 2000. Since they were just back from a tour of Australia they play a couple of AC/DC covers: “Let There Be Rock” and “Dog Eat Dog,” Iggy Pop’s “I’m Bored,” plus live versions of some De Stijl songs like “You’re Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl),” “Little Bird” and “Let’s Build a Home.”

I haven’t watched the DVD yet but the Vault insert states that it is video of “TWO killer shows never seen or heard before their sharing here, from the peak of De Stijl touring…From June 15th [at Jay’s Upstairs, Missoula MT], the band performs strongly while advertising happy hour Pabst pints behind them. Only in Missoula. We think. Excitingly, this show is synched with crystalline soundboard recorded audio giving it an added ‘oomph’ not usually found on these videos…Follow that with the White Stripes first ever in-store performance at Fallout Records in Seattle on June 17th.” They performed a mix of originals and covers, including Bob Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee” and Robert Johnson’s “Stop Breaking Down.”

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Discs 1 and 2 are exactly what you’d expect from a White Stripes retrospective: a collection of 26 songs like “Fell In Love With a Girl,” “Dead Leaves on a Dirty Ground,” “We’re Going to Be Friends,” “Jolene” (one of many covers songs, this one originally by Dolly Parton is my absolute favorite), “Ball and Biscuit,” “My Doorbell” and their biggest hit “Seven Nation Army.” Disc 3 is of most interest to me, with some real gems like the hair metal meets a punk Spanish Conquistador-styled rendition of “Lafayette Blues,” the glam-rocker “Walking With a Ghost,” their live cover of Loretta Lynn’s “Rated X” and “Good to Me” (a breakneck blues stomper). But there’s a couple of stinkers on it like “Who’s a Big Baby?” (it’s waayyy out there, like Jack White found a couple of hidden settings on his grandma’s parlor organ and just went to town) and the most offensive:  “Trendy American Remix” of “You’re Pretty Good Looking” which I hope to god was a joke as it’s entirely in autotune and just awful.

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The second LP on red vinyl is a recording of their show at The Ritz in Raleigh, NC from September 26th, 1999. Included are live versions of several White Stripes songs like “Jimmy the Explorer,” “Sugar Never Tasted So Good” and “Screwdriver,” plus a few covers like the always amazing “Jolene.”

The accompanying look-book of photos, setlists, newspaper reviews and show flyers is a great addition to the package. Especially excellent is the large rendition of the promo art for their show at Milwaukee’s Cactus Club, a venue in our neighborhood. The original still hangs in the bar. The White Stripes opened for one of my favorite (now defunct) local bands, The Mistreaters, for their 7″ inch release party on November 13th 1999. We still kick ourselves every time that show comes up in conversation because we missed it – pretty sure we had a family obligation to attend that night.

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Jack White starts the show by announcing “How you doing? We’re the White Stripes from Detroit. This is my ‘sister’ Meg and I’m Jack. We’re going to play our whole new album in its entirety for you,” and then launches into the killer deep guitar riff of “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” (which they played at the other two shows in the Live in Detroit box set; the only other song that gets a revisit is “The Same Boy You’ve Always Known” which they performed in ‘99 at the Magic Bag). Right away it’s obvious the sound quality has improved since the year before and Meg’s drumming seems more solid, Jack’s guitar even more powerful. There’s a bit of tuning and then the hillbilly stomp of “Hotel Yorba” kicks in followed by the killer hook in “I’m Finding It Harder to be a Gentleman” and the soon-to-be-classic “Fell in Love With a Girl.” There’s only one whisper of a cover in the set, “The Union Forever,” influenced by the mariachi tune by Pepe Guízar. Other show highlights include the manic “Little Room,” the sweetly sparse “We’re Going to be Friends,” the weird angry flamenco guitar meets The Mob on “I Think I Smell a Rat,” the thrashy heavy metal/industrial instrumental “Aluminum,” and when we finally get to hear Meg on the set’s closer “This Protector” (even though Jack and Meg’s harmonizing is a bit shaky).

Runout Groove Side A: THREE TVS… Runout Groove Side B: SHOW SO LITTLE TO SEE

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The sound quality seems a bit rougher than Live at the Magic Bag but the rawness of the performance enhances most of songs The White Stripes performed that night at the Magic Stick. Highlights include cuts from De Stijl like the classic “You’re Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl),” a dirty blues cover of Son House’s “Death Letter,” “I’m Bound to Pack it Up” with sweetly melodic guitar and somewhat stilted drumming (Jack seems to laugh a bit during this song so I’m wondering if Meg fucked up) and “Hello Operator.”  They revisit the awesomely stomping “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” the punkish “Broken Bricks” and “Jimmy the Explorer;” perform a brutally painful rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” (ooofff – it is amazing!); and cover – for the first and only time – Captain Beefheart’s “Ashtray Heart.” Jack White banters far less than he did the previous year, just thanking Grand Rapids’ Whirlwind Heat and the Greenhornes (from Ohio) for opening and later asking the audience for aspirin.

Runout Groove Side A: A EASY, AN EASEL Runout Groove Side B: SO STUPID EARLY DS SHOUT SAVE

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