Last night I went to see Jack White in concert. The plain and simple thing to say at this point is that he is awesome. He's a weird dude with sometimes questionable hair choices, and an impeccable sense of retro-hillbilly-gentleman-punk-rock 'n' roll style, but it all works. From the white boots, to the suits, to the screams, to the falsettos, to the complete originality in the way he puts music together, it all just works. I like that he stops periodically and seriously stares at the audience. It's unnerving. He's not hamming it up for anybody. He's earning the crowd adoration through the music and his mere presence. He was probably also resting. The poor man was sweating profusely. I do worry about musicians wearing so many layers. Isn't it boiling hot in that suit, with all those lights, and a fan base physically burning to be close to you?
There was a young guy next to me who was there alone. I know his ticket was not for that particular seat, as I had witnessed him getting tossed from a couple of the rows in front of me. He was just gunning for the best seat he could get. Towards the end of the show, that seat was next to me, as the older person in that seat had left a song or two early to beat the crowds out of the parking lot (sucker...he missed a rousing rendition of "Seven Nation Army"). Meanwhile, this younger guy was so ecstatic to see Jack. He was jumping up and down and clapping like a little girl at one point and simply hollered out, "Jack White" in his excitement. And I kind of agreed with him. Nothing else needed to be said. He's just Jack White and that's all it takes.
His band was made up of a fabulous and diverse group of people, including one older man with a Carol Channing bob and a Colonel Sanders mustache, playing all sorts of instruments. As good as they were, backing up Jack, they could have all done equally well as a band of circus freaks, with Jack as the ringleader. It kind of made think for a minute that I WOULD run off and join the circus, if it was that particular one.
Needless to say, I bought the tee shirt.