Vanity Mirror Reflects on the White Stripes

Vanity Mirror Reflects on the White Stripes: Johnny Toomey of power-pop project Vanity Mirror told us about his White Stripes experience.

Johnny Toomey: I would have to say the White Stripes first L.A. show at Al’s Bar in 2000.

If anyone remembers Al’s Bar, it was a total hole of a venue. Small, smelled horrible, and you had to kiss anything in your parked car goodbye. This was downtown L.A. before the yuppie lofts. This was still the Skid Row area back then.

There were about 15 people in attendance including myself. The first LP had just come out and I only heard it once at a friend’s house. I was super into the Go and knew that Jack White played with them for a short time. That was the extent of my knowledge on the White Stripes prior to seeing this show.

Everyone there could tell that they were witnessing something that was going to be huge. It was raw and stripped down to the basics of rock music. Something that had been missing for a long while. They looked like they were on a unified kill mission. Meg kept the solid no frills backbeat while Jack’s guitar playing took my head off and his voice cut like a jagged blade and you knew he was more than a talent, he was out to take over the world, and he did.

Vanity Mirror Reflects on the White Stripes: Vanity Mirror’s album PUFF is out now.

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