The last time Jack White was in the UK, it was a blitzkrieg tour of small venues to promote his stealth-released album, No Name. This European tour is a little longer and the venues are a bit larger, but the general vibe remains the same. On the first night of two at the Troxy, White pounds across the stage, strangling the guitar like a toy chicken while his three-piece band heroically try to keep up. Kudos especially to Raconteurs‘ drummer Patrick Keeler, who White goads into ever-escalating feats of kit-bashing to the point that Keeler eventually wrecks a cymbal stand, hurling it to one side following a frenzied “Lazaretto”.
Although the No Name tour was forged in unpredictability, it’s now found a regular rhythm, albeit a very loud and entertaining one. There are extended jams at the start of the show and before the encore – one of the few moments when Bobby Emmett’s organ will be allowed to be heard above the sound of White’s guitar. The musicians will never stop playing, filling every second with sound as if silence is the greatest crime of all. White won’t do much talking and when he does it will be pulpit-style preachifying. There will be weird and wonderful guitar solos from a musician who seems to have re-ignited his love with the instrument. And there will be cool covers that emerge naturally from the between-song jams. In this case, a thrilling rendition of “Teenage Head” by Flamin’ Groovies and a take on Robert Johnson’s “Phonograph Blues”, which sits between a fan-pleasing “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” and “It’s Rough On Rats (If You’re Asking)”.
The latter is one of five tracks pulled from No Name, three fewer than the London show in September. The gap is filled by a wider range of songs from White’s prodigious back catalogue, including “Why Walk A Dog?” from 2018’s Boarding House Reach that is reconstructed for the garage-rock sound. As well as solo and White Stripes favourites like “Hotel Yorba”, “Little Bird” and “Sixteen Saltines”, there’s space for a pair of rarities: “I Fought Piranhas” from the Stripes’ debut album and a great version of “Hypnotize” from Elephant, a song only played twice since 2003
The other No Name songs fit around this mixture of classics and unexpected, now starting to find their natural place in the set list. “Old Scratch Blues” is the favoured opener thanks to its distinctive riff, and it is invariably followed by “That’s How I’m Feeling”, with its call-and-response chorus of “Uh-uh, oh yeah” allowing White to get the audience involved early on. The extended encore usually features “Archbishop Harold Holmes”, White’s hilarious testament to the healing power of music.
That’s a key song because while there is more ebb and flow in the current set, the No Name tour finds White full of boundless energy and a righteous determination to celebrate rock ‘n’ roll in its rawest and wildest form. That reaches an unassailable peak during the encore, which begins with the regular post-break rave-up before moving into a pummelling, military “Icky Thump”. As White slips through the gears, “Archbishop Harold Holmes” gives way to a frighteningly intense “Teenage Head” with everything geared towards the inevitable climax of “Seven Nation Army”, delivered with intent and received with glee by an audience that doesn’t want it to stop.
Jack White’s set list, the Troxy, London, February 28, 2025:
Jam
Old Scratch Blues
That’s How I’m Feeling
Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground
Phonograph Blues (Robert Johnson cover)
It’s Rough On Rats (If You’re Asking)
Little Bird
Hotel Yorba
Top Yourself
Broken Boy Soldier
Lazaretto
I Think I Smell A Rat
Why Walk The Dog?
Hypnotize
What’s The Rumpus?
Ball And Biscuit
Encore
Jam
Icky Thump
Sixteen Saltines
That Black Bat Licorice
Cannon
I Fought Piranhas
Archbishop Harold Holmes
Teenage Head (Flamin’ Groovies)
Seven Nation Army