Perhaps the most enjoyable thing about The White Stripe’s first live album is the knowledge that much of it was recorded in towns with populations smaller than most football games. Released to accompany Emmett Malloy’s documentary of the same name, the record captures a tour that took in gigs in each of Canada’s territories – hence shows in places like tiny Arctic town Iqaluit. The Whites’ contribution to the sometimes brilliant, frequently inessential live genre straddles those two categories. They’re a great loud band, but apart from some bagpipes before Let’s Shake Hands, there’s little new or particularly interesting here. Plus Jack’s predeliction for fretty onanism make it something you’re unlikely to listen to more than once. The hits are all here though, and you can hear the Canuck fans’ enthusiasm grow as a Jolene or a Blue Orchid swells into life and, as ever, it’s hard not to “DUR, DUM DUM DUM DER DERRRR” with Seven Nation Army. UGWNL is a live album for those who were there, and unless you’re one of 600 Iqalummiut fans, you probably weren’t.
