The Raconteurs Play the Role of Big Rock Stars, Break Guitar Strings

The Raconteurs came to play on Lollapalooza's Friday evening with the '70s on their mind. Even the video-screen footage was colored black and white, a retro effect that carried through a show that was part jamboree, part arena blowout. Someone had to play the role of the big rock star, and Jack White obliged, hoisting guitars in the air and finger-tapping Van Halen-style solos. At the microphone, White yelped words with all the pesky fervor of a Chihuahua yipping at a bystander's heels and tore at his guitar strings until they snapped. Such organized chaos extended to rearrangements of "Steady As She Goes" and "The Switch and the Spur," which broke away from their conservative studio molds.

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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