Bonus Concert Review... Jack White

Jack White and the Peacocks
Wiltern Theatre,
Los Angeles, California, May 31, 2012

I'm not a professional reviewer but I was super-stoked to get an invite from my favorite ex-wife to see Jack White last night. So professional journalism be damned, I'm going to share it with you anyway just in case you want to fly to the next show in Berlin on June 26th.  It was a last minute deal that involved the trade of one Ben Harper ticket for one Jack White Ticket that landed me on the very top row of the infamous Wiltern Theatre. I reckon that is equivalent to being just behind the soundboard at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Any efforts to get closer were thwarted by staff, and the fact that it was indeed sold out! We did mange to grab a seat on some stairs in the lower mezzanine for about ten minutes, then back to the top.  Delicate,  ferocious, intense, powerful, complex, insane, loud, too much, are words that come to mind when describing the show. Yeah too much. Sometimes there was so much music coming at you from every possible direction it was just too much making me think, yep, I'm too old for this shit.

Jack White and the Peacocks tore through a selection of songs from all three of his previous bands, The Dead Weathers, White Stripes, and the Raconteurs, and gave us a heavy dose of the new solo album, Blunderbus. My personal favorite being "Take me With You When You Go" A very Zeppelinesque styled tune. Coincidently since I had been living in a cave previously, I didn't even know about Jack White till I saw "It Might Get Loud"  Jack, Jimmy Page, along with the Edge discussing the electric guitar. I was immediately pleased with his style and comparisons to the aformentioned Jimmy Page are not unjustified. Check it out on Netflix if you haven't seen it. Not sure why "the edge" was there though.. Just kidding.

$14.00 IPA.. I'l take two please.

His first solo tour features not one, but two different backing bands.  Los Buzzardos... and the all girl band, the Peacocks. I didn't see the Buzzardos who played the night before, but I don't think anybody could rock harder than the Peacocks. Carla Azar from LA was hitting the drums impossibly hard, and could easliy fill in for the late John Bonham any day of the week. Lille Mae Rische on the Fiddle, Maggie Bjorklund on the steel guitar, a very pregnant Bryn Davies playing her last show on the Upright Bass, Brooke Waggoner on the Keyboards, and Ruby Amanfu joining Jack on vocals. All I can say is the Buzzardos better bring it if they follow these girls. They rock!

Set List

“Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” (The White Stripes)
“Missing Pieces”
“Freedom at 21″
“Love Interruption”
“Top Yourself” (The Raconteurs)
“Hotel Yorba” (The White Stripes)
“Weep Themselves to Sleep”
“Hypocritical Kiss”
“I’m Slowly Turning Into You” (The White Stripes)
“Two Against One” (ROME)
“On and On and On”
“Blue Blood Blues” (The Dead Weather)
“Ball and Biscuit” (The White Stripes)

Encore
“Sixteen Saltines”
“Black Math” (The White Stripes)
“Steady, As She Goes” (The Raconteurs)
“I Guess I Should Go To Sleep” (with Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three)
“Take Me With You When You Go”
“Seven Nation Army” (The White Stripes)
“Goodnight, Irene” (Huddie Ledbetter cover)

Hard to believe they want to ban cell phone camera with shots like this.