Last weekend I treated myself and my brother to a trip to London to see Jack White at Alexandra Palace (under the guise of an 'early birthday present'). I would have been happy enough seeing him at Birmingham as per usual, however as White seems to be avoiding arena-sized venues (which I'm glad of!), the O2 Academy sold out pretty quickly. Going to venue I'd never been to added to the sense of occasion; this was going to be something special.
With Mosshart and White having collaborated together as The Dead Weather (and previously supporting The Raconteurs), The Kills seemed an obvious choice as a support, and I was looking forward to them. Unfortunately due to our underestimation of how long it would actually take to get to the venue we ended up missing the majority of their set. Fortunately we were able to numb the pain with £4.50's worth of flat, room temperature lager. What we did manage to catch of the band was just as underwhelming.
The stage was lit in blue and white (colour-coding seems to be a theme within all Jack's projects), and smartly dressed roadies asked for the audience to refrain from filming the gig (something I wholeheartedly agree with: if you want to film shitty 20 second clips of a gig don't subject me to your phone in my face). White took to the stage accompanied by a multinational all-female band, referred to as The Peacocks (I'd like to think they were chosen solely for their musical ability rather than for Jack's musical obsession with women). He launched straight into the classic 'Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground', dipping into new album 'Blunderbuss' for 'Missing Pieces' and 'Love Interuption', before wowing the crowd with a country-folk style rendition of 'Hotel Yorba'.
The set swiftly continued in this way; all the best bits of 'Blunderbuss' peppered with White Stripes, Dead Weather and Raconteurs classics, and even 'Two Against One' from Danger Mouse's spaghetti-western inspired album. White spoke little between songs, and he didn't need to: these are the kind of songs which speak for themselves. Jack and The Peacocks ended the set with a triumphant encore of 'Sixteen Saltines', 'Steady, As She Goes', and 'Seven Nation Army'. It sounded as if he was geared up to end the show differently (armed with electro-acoustic guitar), but when the crowd started chanting that archetypal guitar riff he was faced with no choice but to end with the White Stripe's biggest hit. The Peacocks lent a slightly blues-country lilt to the various covers, softening the formerly jagged lo-fi edges with touches of fiddle and double bass.
I'd never seen Jack White perform a full set (I'd caught The Raconteurs briefly at Reading Festival), and I was so glad to finally watch him live. I really think White is one of the most talented musicians to emerge from the last 15 years. Each song is so expertly delivered, yet never feels over-rehearsed or tired (it probably helps to have such an extensive back catalogue to choose from). Jack White's solo performances never feel like an ex-lead singer trying to forge a career on the back of former hits. His various side projects and collaborations allow for experimentation without producing results that are too obscure, offbeat or watered down (we'll ignore 'Icky Thump' as the exception to that rule...). His knowledge of music and instruments is astounding, and it's easy to get lost once you start digging into the meaning of all the obscure references which litter his songs. As we left the gig I was dazed, like I'd seen a truly great artist at work (although this was partly fuelled by exhaustion and cider). There was only one thing troubling me...what ever happened to Meg...?
Saturday 3rd November @ Alexandra Palace
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