The White Stripes Across Canada: Montreal

ChartAttack will have reviews, photos and news from most of The White Stripes' cross-Canada tour. Check back to this space for updates on the duo's whereabouts and goings-on as they tour the Great White North.

One of the more indelible and oft-repeated moments in rock 'n' roll history is the opening scene from The Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, when the mop-topped lads from Liverpool attempt to blend in with the crowd as they're being chased by a horde of young girls. Never mind that Facebook groups and fan message boards didn't exist back then, but how on Earth were those obsessed fans able to track them down?

Fast forward to 2007, and this presumably in-the-know writer had to take the afternoon off work, Bengay my right index finger as to not develop any muscle soreness from repeatedly slamming the refresh button on my web browser and camp out in the recesses of one of the Quebecor buildings on McGill Street hoping the White Stripes' next secret show would somehow fall in my backyard.

The most horrifying part is that they did: the Black Watch Armoury on Bleury Street was within spitting distance of my hideout, and I still found out too late — they had stopped accepting people by the time I arrived. For all the time I spent checking myriad message boards devoted to the Detroit-raised duo, it dawned on me that I'd probably never worked so passionately on anything in quite some time.

There's a strange allure to the minimalist group, who altered the musical landscape with their sound and have won over moderate fans like myself by providing these off-kilter challenges. Going into the day, all I knew was the show would start at 3:20 pm, somewhere in the city. Finding Waldo was never this difficult.

This Stripes' Canadian tour, whose Montreal stop and secret show for 40 fans made the cover of the local paper despite it being Jazz Fest week, is so remarkably silly that only this malleable duo from the States could have devised it. I may have missed out on my only chance ever to watch the White Stripes duet with bagpipers, but, like in A Hard Day's Night, the wild ride culminates with a big concert.

In front of a slightly underwhelming crowd of 5,676 at the Bell Centre, Jack and Meg White did their best to make their two-player set-up work in the cavernous home of the Canadiens. Jack's abilities as a blues-rock guitarist are especially dominant live, while Meg pounds her floor tom in time as one would playing the Konami Drum Master video game.

The set list was a broad mix of past hits and current, high-octane tracks from their return-to-form album, Icky Thump. Get Behind Me Satan material was conspicuously absent, as there was an almost Oasis-esque revision of their catalogue on this night. That's unfortunate, because the last record's tracks would have provided punch to the more bluesy mid-set.

The crowd received the band warmly and sang along to most of the tracks, including the non-singles. The empty patches in the audience were eyesores, though. Only the red seats were open and the floor was around three-quarters full. Whereas in other cities The White Stripes were the talk of the town, in Montreal they had to deal with the furious festival season. The wild goose chase in Old Montreal to find their secret show likely set my expectations way too high as well. In the end, as good as they are, invariably they remain a two-pronged rock attack better suited to a club than a huge arena.

Never again will I be so eager to get into an exclusive event, so I will commend the Stripes and their excellent promotional skills, even if only a small handful of people got the chance to witness their show at the armoury. For this Friday at least, the White Stripes may as well have been the freakin' Beatles.