<p>At a chateau in France:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpC9621rC7E”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpC9621rC7E</a></p>
<p>Well where else? 
Last week I had a pic of Jack as my avatar when he was in Seattle at a baseball game with Paul Simon & Eddie Veddet.
Way cool.</p>
<p>Love Jack White! Thanks for the link :). </p>
<p>Here’s a treat for Jack White fans. He’s been touring with versions of this band for a couple of years (actually, this is the “guy” band that alternated concerts with his “girl” band. But, wow, have they gotten good!</p>
<p>This is a 2 hour concert Jack White did, broadcast on NPR, from Los Angeles back in June. This band is smokin’. I haven’t heard anything this tight and off the wall since Frank Zappa. Covers an incredible range of material – from the surf guitar classic Pipeline to the country song he wrote from lyrics in Hank Williams notebook o f unfinished songs. The whole concert is fantastic. </p>
<p>But here’s a good sample. A medley of:</p>
<p>Top Yourself (acoustic)
We’re Going to Be Friends (acoustic)
Top Yourself (electric)</p>
<p><a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p>Rock n’ roll is definitely alive and well. Very creative stuff.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link! I like Jack White. </p>
<p>I saw Jack and Meg many times. I miss that. This being a fan discussion, I’d say I haven’t loved his stuff since then, but really since Get Behind Me Satan. I’ve asked myself why many times and I think it comes down to these points:</p>
<ol>
<li>Meg wasn’t a “real” drummer so she didn’t play genre music; and </li>
<li>Jack backed by Meg would get deep into the genre in the purest way, not reduced by additional players doing more standard genre music; and</li>
<li>That meant the music itself was pure expression of what it was.</li>
</ol>
<p>Examples: from Death Letter to Instinct Blues, Jack got as deep into the blues as anyone. With the latter song, he took it to what was to me an essence: the song almost breaks apart because he doesn’t try to finger the notes cleanly or control himself, which became as primal as the title. </p>
<p>Examples: no matter how many players you add, nothing can beat the pure mountainness of Little Ghost. It’s the kind of song the Appalachian pickers - hammer style, etc. - I hear at folk festivals would love to write, with its pace and clarity and tone. But it escapes genre because it’s just him with the simplest accompaniment. Add people and it becomes less intimate.</p>
<p>On the last few albums, I’ve felt Jack has fit himself to the needs of being in a band. I’d say that started back when he did The Raconteurs. To me, the song quality changed not because the songs were worse but because when they’re fit into a band format they lose a degree of the originality - which they often replace with what I would call “cool” or “hip”. On Blunderbuss, for example, I think he comes closest to escaping genre with 16 Saltines - which is my ring tone, btw - but even terrific songs like Love Interrupted are, to me, shaped more to fit traditional song genre than older material. </p>
<p>I don’t know. I think White’s real genius is as band leader – putting together projects in completely different genres and making them work.</p>
<p>I’ve enjoyed the progression of Jack White’s bands. Love the Raconteurs. I can’t think of a recent vintage band that comes as close to capturing the vibe of the Beatles, Who’s Next, etc. Brendon Benson is pretty terrific on his own.</p>
<p><a href=“The Raconteurs - These Stones Will Shout - YouTube”>The Raconteurs - These Stones Will Shout - YouTube;
<p>Overall, Dead Weather wasn’t my favorite style of music, but – wow – some of the stuff he did with Allison Mosshart was pure electricity.</p>
<p><a href=“The Dead Weather - Will There Be Enough Water? (Live from The Roxy) - YouTube”>The Dead Weather - Will There Be Enough Water? (Live from The Roxy) - YouTube;
<p>And, what can I say about the best band he’s ever put together? The rockabillly band that blew the roof off the Letterman show with Wanda Jackson. This performance, starting with White’s guitar solo about 2:20 in is on fire. you can tell it’s all the band members can do to stop from bursting out laughing they are rockin’ so hard.</p>
<p><a href=“Wanda Jackson w/Jack White - "Shakin' All Over" 1/20 Letterman (TheAudioPerv.com) - YouTube”>Wanda Jackson w/Jack White - "Shakin' All Over" 1/20 Letterman (TheAudioPerv.com) - YouTube;
<p>I wasn’t a big fan of a lot of the songs on Blunderbuss at first. Hated 16 Saltines, actually. And, I thought much of the early live stuff with the “guy” band was close, but no cigar. But, after two years on the road, wow! These guys are like a six piece version of White’s crazy guitar solos. The most striking thing to me is how little of this concert is traditional song format. The changes from riff to riff are pretty striking.</p>
<p>There’s a ton of White Stripes stuff in these recent concerts. Lke a medley of </p>
<p>Ball and a Biscuit
Icky Thump</p>
<p><a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p>And, I think the best thing in the whole show maybe the hard core country song that Jack White wrote to go with unfinished lyrics from Hank Williams notebook of unfinished songs. This is just brilliant, especially the way he delivers the lyrics (in light of his recent romantic troubles with a red head)…</p>
Here’s something fun. Jack White is doing five unannounced acoustic concerts to close out his tour, one in each state he’s never played. The entire Fargo, ND show was streamed live this week and has now shown up on YouTube. Alt-Bluegrass.
A sample:
I love watching his bands perform. Preferred Blunderbuss to Lazaretto, but live, they are both fantastic. Still kicking myself for not seeing the White Stripes. The band he has now is phenomenal. Saw them at Coachella and they were so tight. I love how he changes up the arrangements of his older songs to give them fresh life. Will have to check out that acoustic set.
I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
His Coachella set was streamed live. It was terrific. That band got seriously good, playing stuff that was as as whacked as Frank Zappa’s bands.
He performed in our town just last week. The line for tickets snaked around downtown most of the day!
Yeah. These last five concerts were announced at 9 am the day of the concert. Tix on sale first come first serve at noon for $3 each.
I looked long and hard to see if NH would be one of the five states he hadn’t played, but White Stripes had played a bar at Dartmouth way way back in the day…
As I told my daughter, I probably would have been too young to appreciate them back then. 
Blunderbuss is kinda my favorite
Yeah. Bluegrass Blunderbuss is awesome! Might be the first rock n’ roll song in 10/4 time since the Dead’s Playin’ in the Band:
https://youtu.be/ZYiwalgmSw4?t=2253
Inaccessible Mystery is terrific too:
http://youtu.be/ZYiwalgmSw4?t=1348
And the two solo acoustic songs in the encore are pretty amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYiwalgmSw4&feature=youtu.be&t=3057
I was amused by his portion of “It Might Get Loud,” because so much of it is untrue (but funny).
My absolute favorite part of “It Might Get Loud” was his face when Jimmy Page started playing the riff from Whole Lotta Love. It was the most authentic thing he did in the entire documentary and it’s pretty much what my face would have looked like if I were in his place.
Oh, I think he figured out early on that a fictional biography could be beneficial to his brand building. He joins Bob Dylan, and others, that lead me to assume everything they say is fiction. 
I think it’s part and parcel of being a songwriter/story teller.
I saw Jack & Meg many times. I’m less a fan these days because I think, in general, the more he does, the more his creativity comes out, the better the result.
Here’s one with the band from Coachella a couple weeks ago.
What?? He’s not an upholsterer??