Jack White Goes Solo

Jack White is releasing his first full length solo album titled “Blunderbuss” on April 23/24th and is already playing shows around the world to promote it.

Two problems are that it is darn near impossible to obtain tickets for the shows and he has yet to announce that he is coming to Minnesota.

I read on a thread recently on local blog PerfectDuluthDay.com about all of the bands who used to come to this area and I am jealous. Steve Martin is coming here this summer and even Michelle Lee tripped over her words explaining the opener out of excitement on the Northland News. Maybe it was due to the band 4 on the 4 on the 4 on the Floor being repeated in a Ron Burgundy sort of teleprompter fiasco, or maybe she was just that excited.

Jack White was recently on Saturday Night Live and had two bands backing him on stage. One was made up of all women musicians and the other was all men. During his current tour he has had the two different bands backing him on stage.

My new/old 1965 jukebox has two 45rpms fresh off the vinyl presses that Jack White has released in the past month. The first single had “Love Interruption” on the A-side and “Machine Gun Silhouette” on the B-side. They are decent songs, but not as good as White’s second single release of “Sixteen Saltines” and “Love Is Blindness.”

“Sixteen Saltines” is vintage White Stripes/Jack White with a touch of Raconteurs. “Love is Blindness” is a remake of a U2 song, but White’s solo in the middle rocks the speakers on my Seeburg Discotheque. There is something about a 45rpm record playing on

a jukebox that crackles in a classic sound. This is probably why White’s Third Man Records is still releasing 45s that are tri-colored with jukebox labels.

The greatest announcement that hit the internet immediately following White’s first solo show was the setlist:

“Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”

“Missing Pieces”

“Sixteen Saltines” (below)

“Love Interruption”

“Hotel Yorba”

“Top Yourself”

“Hypocritical Kiss”

“You're Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)”

“Blue Blood Blues”

“We're Going to Be Friends”

(Intermission)

“Freedom at 21”

“My Doorbell”

“Cut Like a Buffalo”

“You Know That I Know”

“Weep Themselves to Sleep”

“Ball & Biscuit”

“Steady as She Goes”

“Seven Nation Army”

“Goodnight Irene”

This means that for those of us who were White Stripes fans, the wait has finally ended. Jack White will be playing White Stripes songs on stage for the first time since 2007. Although I have seen White play many times since 2005, I haven’t heard him play a White Stripes song since then.

I will admit that I have become a bit of a Jack White groupie over the years. Not that I am hanging out after shows waiting to meet him, well, okay, I guess I’ve done that. In 2005 Jack White came out with Meg White after a White Stripes show in Minneapolis, but there was a fence blocking him off and I was a rookie. In 2006 we saw White perform with his new band the Raconteurs at First Avenue. I was getting married that week so I didn’t wait around after the show.

For 2007 we planned to go to Fargo for the White Stripes tour, but they canceled midway through the Canada leg when Meg White had a breakdown. In 2008 we traveled to Chicago for Lollapalooza and saw the Raconteurs from the back of the crowd and it was the hottest day I can remember.

Beginning in 2009 Jack White switched from guitar to drums in the “super group” band The Dead Weather. After seeing them play at First Avenue my wife and I decided to add Denver and Salt Lake City to our road trip to Yellowstone. We saw a show in Denver and then drove the entire next day to see them again in Salt Lake. Jack White came out for one song on guitar and ripped the roof off with his two solos. I think White played in the Dead Weather just to torture his fans and make them ears salivate while waiting anxiously for him to play the guitar.

At the shows for the Dead Weather White would sit behind the drums, the oft-forgotten instrument of the band. Sure his drums were lower than most bands’ and he was in the center, but lead singer Allison Mosshart stole the show with her front woman skills.

Mosshart, who also fronts The Kills, crawled around the stage wearing dark, tight-fitting clothing. She was captivating, but nothing mattered when White walked out from behind the drumset. Mosshart was captivating, but White was what everyone was there to see.

Chants would arise from the crowd when White would come out for his one song on guitar. The energy is something I have never seen before at a live show; it was more of a wanting roar than an obligatory cheer.

What a build up, but now Jack White has gone solo. He has abandoned the Raconteurs, White Stripes, and The Dead Weather to take on just being Jack White.

Visit my website www.thefountainheads.com for videos from the shows and even one containing my jukebox playing “Love Interruption.”