Just three nights after seeing Kylie, we were at another concert but this one couldn’t have been more constrasting in style!

It was back to more regular and comfortable territory for me as my wife and I went to Toyosu Pit in Koto Ward (Tokyo) to see the genius behind The White Stripes. These days  Jack White is a solo artist with a great support band behind him. I was a fan of The White Stripes in the 2000s and bought all of their albums on CD as well as downloading (having modernised!) those of The Raconteurs and the Dead Weather (his side projects) but my music listening declined big time in the 2010s and I lost touch with a lot of new stuff. Back in 2022 though I watched his live performance of ‘Seven Nation Army‘ at Glastonbury on YouTube which really was incredible to witness.

That really reignited my interest in his music and little did I know but he had long embarked on a solo career and at that time had already released four studio albums. The fifth one followed shortly after that Glastonbury appearance and ‘No Name‘ became the latest album last summer.

As soon as it was announced last year that he was doing a five-date Japan tour I was keen and applied for a pair of tickets in the original lottery which I won. It was then time to get updated on his solo material, as well as refreshing my memory of his vast back catalogue. Not an easy job as a look at his setlists tells you that he really likes to switch things up in and around a few core classic songs and new album tracks.

On the day of the concert (15th March) I had to work beforehand and the moment my last lesson finished I got changed and threw the jumper, shirt, trousers and shoes I’d worn for teaching in the bin (they were all old) and was out of the door racing off to Shin-Toyosu station on the Yurikamome Line which is just a few minutes walk away from Toyosu Pit; a venue I last went to in 2019 to see Manic Street Preachers.

I needn’t have rushed so much as typically my wife was late! As we were queuing up to get in the two lines converged and unbelievably the guy then stood by my side was my old friend Lee who I hadn’t seen for over a decade. Once inside, we caught the end of the set from the interestingly named warm-up band Otoboke Beaver.

We said we’d both seen The White Stripes play back in the day with mine being nearly 22 years whilst I was living and working in Hamburg (Germany). I really cannot remember much about that show but I am sure they didn’t even play the mega-hit ‘Seven Nation Army‘ which was actually released that same year.

With his distinctively unique vocals, fairly indecipherable lyrics and many over-the-top, slightly unnecessary and occasionally out-of-place guitar riffs, I can totally understand that his music is something of an aquired taste. Sign me up for that though I say! White and his band came on stage  just after 7:15 pm and bashed out an intro jam followed by ‘Old Scratch Blues‘; the fantastic opening song from the latest album.

There were actually six songs played in total from the new album which under normal circumstances for most artists would be considered to be taking the p*ss but as a fan of the album I was actually delighted to hear all of them. It did mean though that there were absolutely no other songs from his other solo albums which is a shame as I’d love to have heard the likes of ‘That Black Bat Licorice‘ and ‘Lazaretto‘.

Along with the two instrumental jams at the start of the regular and encore sessions, there were also eight White Stripes songs, a single Raconteurs one, none from the Dead Weather and a solitary cover. The latter came courtesy of a duet with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam who appeared as a guest to do a cover of a Neil Young song which sounded pretty awesome. At the time though I have to be honest and say I had no idea who the mystery guest singing on stage was!

Jack White sure puts his heart, soul and energy into the performance and was sounding good and in his element displaying his superb guitar skills. So much that in some ways it did feel like a jamming session for Jack and his mates at times with his back turned away from the audience a bit too much for my liking. It should be added that it wasn’t all guitar as he did play the piano on ‘Apple Blossom‘ showing that he is a Jack-of-all-trades!

There was very little crowd interaction and none of the usual “arigatooouuu Tokyo” utterances between songs which was quite refreshing in a way. When Jack did speak I could barely catch any of it so I can’t imagine the Japanese understood any of it! It’s all about the music for White but without much chat it did become hard at times to differentiate between the songs I didn’t know so well as they just blended into one another as was the case with ‘Cannon‘ segueing into ‘Screwdriver‘ followed by a ‘Cannon‘ reprise!

When you have a song in your pocket like ‘Seven Nation Army‘ it almost doesn’t matter what you play beforehand as it’ll have everyone leaving on a high! That larger-than-life banger inevitably closed the set but it took me by surprise as I guess I was expecting the set to exceed 80 minutes. Such a full-on set must take its toll on White though! The timing of the song certainly caught out my wife who went to the toilet halfway through the previous song ‘Underground‘! Luckily she just about returned in time for the majority of it.

When someone has a deep back catalogue there is always going to be a bit of disappointment as it’s impossible to satisfy everyone. I was a little sad that I didn’t get to see him play the likes of ‘Icky Thump‘, ‘I Smell A Rat‘, ‘Fell In Love With A Girl‘, ‘Steady As She Goes‘ and ‘I Cut Like A Buffalo‘ among others. As it was, most of them were performed on his second night in Tokyo (click here to see a review of that courtesy of one of my colleagues) when he played some extra songs! An extra tune or two is to be expected but not five! I was rather envious but that’s life and I’m sure I’ll forget about that in time and only remember that I had a good night ….. apart from when I re-read this in the future!!

Setlist: 1. Intro Jam; 2. Old Scratch Blues; 3. That’s How I’m Feeling; 4. Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground; 5. It’s Rough On Rats (If You’re Asking); 6. Apple Blossom; 7. Catch Hell Blues; 8. Hotel Yorba; 9. Broken Boy Soldier; 10. Cannon; 11. Screwdriver; 12. Tonight (Was A Long Time Ago); 13. Ball And Biscuit; 14. Encore Jam; 15. Rockin’ In The Free World; 16. Archbishop Harold Holmes; 17. Underground; 18. Seven Nation Army.

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