At 9 p.m. on Saturday night, Detroit-native Jack White took the Value City Arena stage at the Schottenstein Center to play a two-hour set for an audience of all ages.
The 39-year-old musician’s performance featured music from his solo career, his band The White Stripes, a collaborative music project called The Raconteurs, and a Hank Williams cover. Chicano Batman, a groovy four-piece band from White’s record label, Third Man Records, opened.
“The coolest aspect of Jack’s performance was that he wasn’t just playing his solo stuff, but he was playing White Stripes and Raconteurs too, so it was a really good mix of some of his classic stuff and his new solo work,” recalled Ohio State freshman Austin Reimer.
White released his first album with The White Stripes in 1999. His long, successful career has produced ample music to perform spanning the genres of garage rock, folk, punk, and blues. His simple stage setup consisting of nothing more than musicians, instruments, lights, and one broken TV lent itself to the flexible and relaxed tone of the show.
He and his five-piece band opened with The White Stripes’ Icky Thump, an upbeat hard-rock song, playing in to non-lyrical jam High Ball Stepper off of his latest solo album, and then a song later moving into the folky White Stripes tune Hotel Yorba. All in all, he played an energetic 27-song set with a short break near the middle.
White closed the show with The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, a sports anthem and a Buckeye favorite. “Oh, you know this one?” he joked to the audience.
Parents in the audience danced next to their children who danced next to college students. Marissa Luther, marketing director of Promowest Productions Columbus predicted White’s diverse audience: “I think it will be a mix of college-aged kids that like his new album as well as people that have been fans of him for years.”
“For real, the show was nothing less than I was expecting,” Reimer reminisced.
White has been on tour since June of 2014 following the release of his second solo album, “Lazaretto.” He was a headliner last summer for numerous music festivals around the world including Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, TN.