Jack White, photo by David James Swanson
Toronto was abuzz on Friday, August the 19th, and not just because of the Doug Ford bee-swallowing incident.
The Canadian National Exhibition is back in swing after a two-year absence, carnival eats and all. On the same night of its grand reopening, guitar feedback was crackling across the street from the one and only Jack White who has been on the road since early April on his “Supply Chain Issues” world tour.
The former White Stripe, Raconteur and Dead Weather-er is supporting not one but two albums – the thrashier Fear of Dawn as well as more recently released (and infinitely mellower) Entering Heaven Alive. As busy (As a bee?) as he keeps himself, White looked refreshed with his blue dyed hair, glitter-encrusted guitar and firefighter’s cargo pants. While this is sure to sound biased, Toronto seems to bring out the best in Jack White. He did remind us at one point how he’s the only artist to have performed in every Canadian province and territory. Watch The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights if you’d like your memory jogged. There is a palpable energy the city brings to music he has been making famous for more than twenty years, which is also amplified by his current backing band comprised of Daru Jones beating the holy hell out of the drums, childhood friend Dominic Davis on bass plus multi-talented instrumentalist Quincy McCrary rounding things out.
Jack White has built up a considerable reputation of continually surprising fans and detractors alike. With this being his fourth cycle as a solo artist, that has proven to be increasingly challenging as one can imagine. Whereas before there were more gimmicky stunts such as bringing both an all-male and all-female band on tour with him, this time around the frills were in the coming together of his dual albums. COVID necessitated White play a lot of the parts himself and Frankenstein them digitally using Pro Tools, a first for the long-standing champion of pretty much all things analog. The resulting recordings are equally stellar in their distinct ways and are totally worth your listening time, but the live environment is where White’s mad scientist creations take on lives of their own. You name the genre, Jack White has done it over his career – garage punk, blues, country; when he’s on stage with his present ensemble bathed in blue light however, it’s more akin to free-form jazz in my ears. Songs no matter what their origin (whether they’re from The White Stripes era, etc.) become less defined and more jam-like in nature. Still familiar, albeit supercharged by a force not even Jack White can control.
Not everyone is crazy about the power White tries to exert in terms of people’s concert experiences. Knowing there’d probably delays from everyone having to put their phones away for the night in a magnetically-sealed pouch, I made a beeline for the venue upon arriving at The Ex instead of trying my luck at Crown and Anchor. I ended up missing the first bit of July Talk’s opening set, which is unfortunate as the local alt-rockers apparently debuted new material. I’ve always thought JT were a good match with JWIII (Jack White III, as he likes to refer to himself). The male-female dynamic tension of Leah Fay and Peter Dreimanis is reminiscent not only of The White Stripes obviously, but The Dead Weather featuring Alison Mosshart on lead vocals. I got their trilogy of songs with plus signs in the title, namely “Guns + Ammunition”, “Lola + Joseph” and “Push + Pull” which showed Toronto DOES know how to dance!
Earlier in the day, the members of July Talk were spotted at Toronto’s Sonic Boom to check out the record store’s Phono-Mat contraption. It’s the ultimate vending machine for vinyl enthusiasts. Get a token from the cashier, pop it in, push a button and see which mysterious packaged square comes out. The person I know who took this video scored Hall & Oates, sweet. Seems like something that is right up Jack White’s alley, surprised he wasn’t there. I guess Jack decided to save all his surprises for the show, like covering Big Sugar’s “Ride Like Hell”. Wonder if Gordie Johnson was there?
And apologies for the bee references, but White does have a playful song called “Queen of the Bees” on Entering Heaven Alive that I was kind of hoping would make it onto an otherwise can’t complain setlist.
Be sure to check out Live Nation Ontario to see all of the other great acts that they will be bringing to Toronto this year.
