A globetrotting Jack White made a hometown pit stop Monday night — and refueled with a blast of Detroit rock energy.
Inside a packed Saint Andrew’s Hall, playing for 1,000 in a show that was announced just last week, White was joined by drummer Patrick Keeler (the Raconteurs), keyboardist Bobby Emmett (the Sights) and longtime friend-bassist Dominic Davis for a raw and special homecoming visit.
Aside from the occasional private gigs he has staged at his Third Man Records store in the Cass Corridor, it was the most intimate Detroit show the ex-White Stripe has performed in years. For the lucky fans on hand — who had quickly snatched up what abruptly became one of the summer’s hottest concert tickets — it was a chance to catch the usual guitar heroics and rock abandon up close and in the face.
“Man, I’ve seen so many shows in this room, but I’ve never really played here,” White said early on.
It was all in the service of “No Name,” White’s sixth and latest solo album, which provided about a third of Monday’s set list alongside music from the White Stripes, Raconteurs and past solo efforts. The album’s summer mini-tour had White and the band in South Korea over the weekend and off to Scandinavia this week. Detroit sat somewhere in the middle of that 10,600-mile trip.
The no-frills Saint Andrew’s visit was in keeping with the organic rollout of the new record, which was surreptitiously released in July when unidentified vinyl copies were slipped into the bags of customers at his Third Man shops in Detroit, Nashville and London. “No Name” got its official digital and physical release two weeks later.
Jack White salutes his 93-year-old mom from onstage in Detroit
Detroit-born rocker Jack White greeted his mother, Teresa Gillis, during his Monday night concert in downtown Detroit.
Friends and family in the Saint Andrew’s balcony Monday included White’s 93-year-old mom, Teresa Gillis, who got an affectionate reception from the crowd when he pointed her out from the stage.
And White drew knowing laughs when he introduced the Stripes chestnut “Hotel Yorba” by referring to his 2022 concert at the Masonic Temple Theatre, which included an onstage proposal and wedding with Olivia Jean.
“I’ve gotta be careful when I play this song because last time in Detroit I ended up getting married it after it,” he said.
The new “Old Scratch Blues” kicked things off with plenty of room for White’s improv guitar jams, followed by the warm groove of “That’s How I’m Feeling,” with an audience call-and-response that showed fans were well-acquainted with the latest songs.
“That’s my town right there!” White said.
“Archbishop Harold Holmes” and “What’s the Rumpus?” made for a playful pairing of new material late in the regular set, while “It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)” demonstrated that “No Name” just might be White’s most cohesive, distinct collection of riffs since he embarked on a solo career.
There was a loose, unfettered vibe to the evening, and White appeared to be calling audibles to his bandmates throughout.
“Love Interruption” launched a darker section that had a bare-knuckle cover of the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” sandwiched by the White Stripes’ old Son House tribute “Cannon” for a one-two shot of Michigan menace. (Another local nod would come later, when White unearthed “Keep on Trash” by the late, great Detroit band the Go, with whom he’d done a brief tenure in the late ’90s.)
A reliably hot and gnarled “Ball and Biscuit” closed the regular set, before an encore that featured a pair of Raconteurs numbers (“Steady, as She Goes” and a stellar “Broken Boy Soldier”) and a slide-guitar frenzy to cap the night: The new “Underground” segued smartly into “Seven Nation Army” to send off the evening with a moment of familiar, chant-along Detroit communion.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
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