Jack White has played New York in a myriad of bands. Until Friday night at Webster Hall, he hadn’t played a show in the city simply under his own stagename. This solo debut came just days after releasing his latest “Blunderbuss”, also the first LP released under only the Jack White moniker. Performing two sets with two separate bands (one all-female, one all-male), White pulled tracks from all over the place with an obvious focus on his newest record.

For an artist to start a show with a song he released over a decade ago, you’d think it would be a sure sign of lack of confidence in the new material. For White and his crew, it seemed more like they wanted to quickly present what this lineup was capable of when reworking older material. Whether it was a White Stripes track from ‘02, or a prewar Hank Williams number, both bands of White’s took to them in keeping with the stylized full-band feel of “Blunderbuss”. This created an atmosphere that celebrated both White’s career in music and his influences, with “Blunderbuss” always at the center.

“Missing Pieces” and “Hypocritical Kiss” stood out as new tracks that already felt fully fleshed-out. The bands played both with such precision and relaxation that it felt like the middle of a tour, and not a one-off on the eve of beginning a long haul across the world. Others like “Love Interruption” and “Weep Themselves to Sleep” stumbled along sounding like they needed an extra kick to really work in with the performance. While stylized similarly to the rest of the show, sections of these two tracks felt too focused on getting it right and did not play smooth enough to carry out just yet. This slowed down the pace of what otherwise ran like a well organized Vaudeville review, though more coherent maintaining a consistent arc.

It was endearing to watch White revert constantly to his base two-piece state by facing squarely towards the drums during especially noise-heavy sections. It will be fascinating to see where White’s act stands a month from now when they return to the city and play the larger Roseland Ballroom. I suspect they will tighten up the segments that didn’t play as well, and that we just witnessed the start of one of the best tours of the year.

The entire show, minus for whatever reason the closing Leadbelly cover “Goodnight Irene”, had been live streamed, and can now be viewed in full at the link below.

Jack White - Live at Webster Hall, Directed by Gary Oldman

Setlist:

Set one backed by The Peacocks

• Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
• Missing Pieces
• Freedom at 21
• Love Interruption
• Hotel Yorba
• Two Against One
• Top Yourself
• I’m Slowly Turning Into You
• Blue Blood Blues
• Take Me With You When You Go

Set two backed by Los Buzzardos

• Sixteen Saltines
• I Cut Like A Buffalo
• Weep Themselves to Sleep
• Trash Tongue Talker
• You Know That I Know
• We’re Going to be Friends
• Hypocritical Kiss
• Hello Operator
• Carolina Drama
• Seven Nation Army
• Goodnight Irene 

ES