I thought it was going to be a four-way duke out between Leonard, Broooooce, Grimes and PiL but, no, last night Jack White entered the scrap for Clarkian Gig of the Year.
Opting for the female of the backing band species, it was The Peacocks who helped their flamboyantly trousered leader – it’s not everyone who can pull off the electric blue look – crank out a 20-song set that mixed White Stripes classics (‘Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground’, ‘Hotel Yorba’, ‘The Hardest Button To Button’) with Raconteurs rockers (‘Top Yourself’, ‘Steady, As She Goes’, ‘Carolina Drama’), gothier Dead Weather workouts (‘Blue Blood Kiss’), solo album highlights (‘Sixteen Saltines’, ‘Love Interruption’, ‘Trash Tongue Talker’) and a lost Hank Williams song (‘You Know That I Know’).
That Jack has been residing in Nashville was evident from the honky tonk piano and fiddle embellishments, but really this was just a scabrous rock ‘n’ roll show full of crunchy Led Zep power chords, thermonuclear drumming courtesy of Carla Azar and Mr. White’s impassioned fingers-caught-in-the-car-door yelp.
“It’s good to be back,” he says taking a rare breather. “I would have been here sooner but I had to help some kids make a bonfire down the street.”
It seems Jack White just can’t help being incendiary.