Jack White @ Atlanta’s Fox Theatre 10/09/12

If you caught Jack White on his US tour this year, you saw a once-in-a-lifetime show. He will never perform a show like that again – no matter which city you caught him in. That is due to his brilliant way of keeping each show spontaneous and original.

The morning of the show he picks which backing band, the all female Peacocks or the all male Buzzards, will join him on stage (or maybe even both). Then, when the show starts he has no pre-determined set list. He makes it up as he goes – a The White Stripes song here, a The Raconteurs one there, some Jack White solo project ones scattered throughout, and maybe a The Dead Weather tune is tossed in as well. With those four projects’ discographies combined with the various backing band combinations, the options are limitless.

When White played to the near sold out crowd in Atlanta’s classic Fox Theatre he had the Peacocks join him on stage for a massive and loud set followed by an almost equally long encore. When not busy accompanying the performer with their air guitars, just about every audience member was singing every line of every song word-for-word.

The Peacocks were impeccable in keeping up with his non-stop, frantic pace. Drummer Carla Azar was incredible to watch and backup singer Ruby Amanfu was captivating as she traded lines with Jack in an almost flirtatious way.

After the band lined up on stage and took a bow, the exhilarated fans poured out of the venue into the streets of downtown. As I moved out with the mob, a kid in front of me, barely twelve years old, declared that it was the second best show he’d ever seen – second only to Guns’N’Roses. Quite an odd assessment, but who am I to argue with a pre-teen about bands that formed before he was born.

White and his entourage are just about done touring in the US for the year – you’ll have to swim across the pond to catch them in the U.K. this November. For now, you can hit up his YouTube channel and see the four great music videos he’s released from Blunderbuss as well as watch the AMEX sponsored live show he played earlier this year.

Setlist – October 9, 2012, Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA

  • Missing Pieces
  • Sixteen Saltines
  • Cannon / John the Revelator / Cannon (The White Stripes)
  • Love Interruption
  • Hotel Yorba (The White Stripes)
  • Weep Themselves to Sleep
  • The Same Boy You’ve Always Known (The White Stripes)
  • Top Yourself (The Raconteurs)
  • I Guess I Should Go to Sleep
  • Screwdriver Intro / Blue Blood Blues (The Dead Weather)
  • I’m Slowly Turning Into You (The White Stripes)
  • Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (The White Stripes)

Encore:

  • Freedom at 21
  • Steady, As She Goes (The Raconteurs)
  • We’re Going to Be Friends (The White Stripes)
  • Blunderbuss
  • Broken Boy Soldier Intro / Carolina Drama (The Raconteurs)
  • Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes)