5 December 2024 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane – words by Bec Harbour
Pictures supplied – David James Swanson
It has been a sultry week in Brisbane – hot, humid and stormy – I was not looking forward to being packed into a sold-out Fortitude Music Hall, but when the artist is Jack White, I will put up with a lot!
Jack White’s career has spanned a few decades now, introduced to most of us with the White Stripes and going on to the Dead Weather, The Raconteurs and now his solo work. All of it is amazing and this show brought so many of his eras together that no one could possibly have walked away thinking anything was missing.
There was some debate whether Piss Shivers, the support for the evening were going to go on. But go on they did and played an abrasive serving of dirty punk and it was amazing. Their 4th song was dedicated to Gemma “where ever the hell she is…” Turns out Gemma is the regular drummer who has just had a baby. Piss Shivers are absolutely why you turn up for the support.
Some very well dressed men came out on stage and began setting up for Jack White and his band, or were they the band? Turns out they were Jacks guitar techs/roadies, and you’ll see why they are important later in this review. One of them came out just before the set and spoke to the crowd, asking if we were excited to see Jack and how excited they all were to be in Brisbane – the crowd roared back their appreciation.
One of the things that has always been asked at Jack White gigs is to leave your phones down, don’t spend the whole gig recording it (hello lady in the front row who also turned her flash on), and be in the moment and enjoy the show. There was a lot of appreciation from the crowd about this and I wish the person behind me who kept trying to use me as a tripod to get footage had of got the message (no one wants your blurry wobbly footage thanks).
Jack White and his band walked out to cheers and applause and Jack spoke for a minute about being happy to be there – they kicked off the set with ‘Old Scratch Blues’ and continued on with ‘That’s How I’m Feeling’. Then the intro sounded for ‘Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground’ and the crowd went electric – so many voices singing along!
There was a lot of jamming in-between songs and the next song I recognised was ‘It’s Rough On Rats (if you’re asking)’ and then another extended jam into ‘What’s Done Is Done’. The very recognisable intro to ‘Hotel Yorba’ kicked in and so did the crowd, singing along. It shows how much The White Stripes are loved and missed. Then we had ‘Broken Boy Soldier’ from The Raconteur’s era and a Booker T cover, ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’.
Jack White – Fortitude Music Hall
Jack did numerous guitar changes throughout the night, not only after songs, but midway through songs – after each guitar change, a well dressed man would scurry out and grab the discarded guitar and take it away and return it after the next guitar changeover – later in the show I saw why – strings were broken and the guitars had been put through it!
We had a run of songs from the solo era, ‘What’s the Rumpus’ and ‘Underground’ then another White Stripes song, ‘Cannon’ and a bit more jamming to a song called ‘John the Revelator’. Some more solo songs after that, ‘Morning at Midnight’, ‘Lazeretto’ and ‘Walking a Dog’ before another White Stripes song, ‘Black Math’ and with that they said thanks and went off stage. That went so quick, surely that wasn’t it?
After sweating buckets on-stage, the band came back towelled and slightly more refreshed for the encore – three more songs, ‘Archbishop Harold Holmes’ and two more White Stripes songs, ‘Blue Orchid’ and let me say when the unmistakeable sound of ‘Seven Nation Army’ sounded I thought the venue was going to riot!
I have seen Jack White with the White Stripes a few times, never solo – this show encompassing every era to date of his career has probably been my favourite – at the end and during the sing-alongs by the crowd, you could see how stoked Jack was on how stoked the crowd were to see him and was grinning from ear to ear.
