REVIEW: Jack White on top of his game at Shoreline Amphitheatre

Jack White

Jack White and his band perform at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., on June 4, 2022. Courtesy David James Swanson/Jack White.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Jack White may have a new album out, but it was his distinguished career with the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather that also got plenty of attention at his concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre Saturday night.

Over the a 90-minute, 22-song set that White’s DJ said came together on the fly, only five songs came from recently released album, Fear of the Dawn. It’s one of two albums he’s releasing this year, and White also included two songs from the forthcoming Entering Heaven Alive, which was an additional treat.

The crowd preferred the more established hits, however.



Four of the first five tunes White and his ever-talented band performed came from Fear of Dawn. As a ruffled purple curtain slowly inched up, the band was revealed to already be on the other side and jamming away to the intro to “Taking Me Back.” White, playing a purple guitar that matched the color of the curtain, first jumped to the front of the stage and later jammed alongside his long-time virtuosic drummer Daru Jones and then his keyboardist.

Jack White, Daru Jones

Jack White and his band perform at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., on June 4, 2022.

That song transitioned right into “Fear of the Dawn” as White continued to wail away. The two songs set the tone for much of the show. White and the band would jam, solo, slow and regroup before building steam back up and end the songs in a jam session. Jack White wasn’t there to be a chatty party guest or blow the roof off the joint with dramatic production—though it was noteworthy how his touring team took a flat video board and repeatedly turned it into a three-dimensional space that made the stage seem like more than it was.

But despite not being very talkative and usually looking like he was deep in thought, White was a magician with his instruments, and his fans came to see him perform tricks.



Following the White Stripes’ “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” which had him climbing up and up the neck of his guitar during a solo, he returned to the new album for “Hi-De-Ho,” a fun romp that includes Q-Tip on the album. There was a sort of statue on stage, all in white, as if made of plaster, and resembling White himself. He screamed into the statue’s ear—which was possibly a voice-modulating microphone.

Jack White

Jack White and his band perform at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., on June 4, 2022.

The following “The White Raven” turned up the mood even further; it had one of the fastest tempos of any song White and his band performed.

“This is a song I wrote yesterday about the day after yesterday,” White said by way of an introduction for “If I Die Tomorrow,” from Entering Heaven Alive, the first slower tune of the night. The reflective track will officially be released on June 8. The acoustic-guitar-led  “Love Is Selfish” and rollicking country take on the White Stripes’ “Hotel Yorba” followed. One of the evening’s highlights came with White switching off between guitar and an upright piano during this song.



The Dead Weather song “Gasoline” sounded like a Camaro revving its engine. Other tunes sounded like a blend of grunge and jazz (thanks to Daru Jones and the band’s other members). White, meanwhile, was most always switching off between the three to five guitars around him at any given time.

Jack White

Jack White and his band perform at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., on June 4, 2022.

The set included the White Stripes’ “Hello Operator,” the Dead Weather’s “I Cut Like a Buffalo” (with White near-squealing the high vocals, as well as a couple of sweet, slower, more melodic moments. The White Stripes’ “We’re Going to Be Friends” was one of them, even if the lyrics about kids returning to school seem pained and heavy in these times when school feels like such a dangerous place.

The Raconteurs’ “You Don’t Understand Me” found White back at the piano. A couple of songs later, “Freedom at 21” turned into another memorable jam, as did a rollicking cover of Joe Williams’ “Baby, Please Don’t Go.” After taking a very short break, the band returned to the stage for a four-song encore that included another new track, “What’s the Trick?” and Raconteurs hit “Steady, as She Goes” that included a fun psychedelic keyboard part.



But let’s face it: Everyone was waiting around for “Seven Nation Army.”

Jack White and the band didn’t disappoint.

Garage rock duo The Kills opened the show and had the misfortune of having a bad sound mix derail about half its set. Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince didn’t seem to notice that their microphones were turned off for the first of opener “No Wow,” and that all attendees could hear were the backing tracks and maybe some of Hince’s guitar.

The duo performed without a full band, which didn’t help matters.



The bad mix continued to be a factor on songs like “U.R.A. Fever,” “Tape Song” and “Rodeo Town,” which Mosshart said she didn’t performing before (Setlist.fm says it was the first performance since 2005). The vocals, melodies and Hince’s guitar wailing were all buried under the bass-den backing tracks.

The Kills seemed to recover a bit for the back half of their performance, starting with the chugging “Pull a U,” bouncy “Sour Cherry,” skittering-synth-led “Doing It to death” and the funereal “Pots and Pans,” on which Mosshart banged away on a pair of tom toms.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter

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