The Raconteurs w/ the Black Lips, LC Pavilion, 6-9

When the Raconteurs recorded their debut album Broken Boy Soldiers, Jack White, Brendan Benson and Greenhornes rhythm vets Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler hadn’t even played a show together yet. So it makes sense that after playing dozens of shows, the band has now started to jell. The Raconteurs have created a new album worthy of its talented members, and on Monday night at the open-air version of the LC Pavilion, they put on a thrilling concert.

White has clearly learned how to fill a stage playing as a duo with Meg in the White Stripes. He possesses a charisma that reached to the back wall of the lawn, but not because of over-the-top antics of any sort (though he does wield a mean guitar). He’s one of the rare performers whose mere presence can inspire the musicians around him and demand the eyes and ears of concertgoers.

But this wasn’t just the Jack White Show. It was truly all about chemistry, as co-leader Benson held his own with a voice more complementary than comparable to White’s, and Keeler’s outstanding drumming served as a touchstone for the rest of the Nashville-based band to play off each other in surprising and unforced ways.

The Raconteurs’ blues-rock sound is classic rock-inspired, for sure. The band even covers late-’60s Brit-rocker Terry Reid’s “Rich Kid Blues” on Consolers of the Lonely, and on Monday night Benson sang it with gusto before the song merged into a trippy breakdown that briefly became the Doors’ “The End” before ramping back up. That tactic was a common one in the performance--“You Don’t Understand Me” went from a ballad with White on piano to a rocker and then back again.

But the best use of the loud-quiet-loud device was on the first-set closer, “Blue Veins.” The extended guitar-jam intro would have disguised the song if it weren’t for Lawrence’s distinctive bass line providing the bluesy backbone to what was probably the best song of the night. The band built the anticipation to its peak right before stopping as White delivered the first line, “When I was surrounded you were the only one who came,” followed by sharp guitar blasts punctuating the backbeat. Later in the song White’s lead-guitar skills took center stage as the band went silent to highlight his Jimmy Page-style attack. It was the type of jamming that served the song instead of detracting from it.

Right before the closing song of the encore, the Raconteurs blasted through the first single off the new record, “Salute Your Solution.” It’s a near-perfect classic rock/pop song: rocking, grooving, bluesy, gritty, catchy and frenzied enough to avoid the stylistic cliches that come along with the genre.

Atlanta band the Black Lips proved to be a worthy opener for the most part. The band’s garage rock comes with lots of punk flavor and slightly southern-fried. They were messy and scruffy; one of the singer/guitarists had a stain-covered shirt and liked to spit, which isn’t that weird for a rock band, but even when he accidentally (I think) spit all over his face, he didn’t bother to clean it up until a couple songs later. Still, judging from what I’ve heard about how their shows used to be (puking on each other, playing guitar with their junk), I guess the Black Lips are fairly tame now.

“Bad Kids” and “Katrina” were pretty good, and “Dirty Hands” is a particularly great song, merging hillbilly rock and ’60s pop on the hilariously appropriate chorus: “Do you really wanna hold my dirty hand?”

None of the four members can really sing, but that’s OK. It would sound weird if their voices were too pretty. The digital vocal effects were forced and didn’t really fit the vibe the band’s going for, but the main thing the band suffered from was the venue. It’s not the LC’s fault, it’s just that the Black Lips belong in a small, dingy rock club. But it’s a rare group of musicians who can convey their stuff all the way to that back wall.