Jack White transforms Grand Rapids venue into rafter-rattling, rock ’n’ roll roadhouse

The Detroit-bred guitarist blazed a loud, shapeshifting trail through his career catalog on Tuesday for 2,600 rabid fans at GLC Live at 20 Monroe. The Local Spins review, with photos.

 

SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTO GALLERY, SET LIST

Singling out highlights in any Jack White show can be a fool’s game.

Just when you think you’ve heard something you’ve never heard before, performed in brilliantly spirited fashion, the mutating, shapeshifting set list holds yet another glorious surprise.

Such was the case Tuesday night in Grand Rapids, as Jack White and his cohorts untethered another extraordinary rock ’n’ roll spectacle to close out a three-date Michigan run in their home state.

The capacity crowd of 2,600 packed into GLC Live at 20 Monroe responded accordingly, exuberantly welcoming (and singing along to) the trailblazing Detroit guitarist and singer as if he was part of their family — which certainly was true in many cases, considering the relatives and friends in the house and the musical comrades on stage.

“It’s interesting, because we’ve known each other for so long, and really, him and his family are kind of the reason why I play music because my family wasn’t really musical,” bassist and music director Dominic John Davis told Local Spins.

“We didn’t really have a radio at my house, so it’s special in that way.”

Like some free-form radio show, special could also describe the nightly “tightrope” that White’s band walks as the guitarist seemingly races randomly from song to song.

“There’s always this moment of, ‘Do I know this song?’ You’ve got to be really on your toes,” said Davis, who keeps track of shows and alerts folks at Third Man Records whenever the band plays something new on tour. And, yes, that happens a lot.

After an opening set by Grand Rapids punk-rock band Easers, White launched into Tuesday’s 93-minute show with the tour’s standard two-song opening fare of “Old Scratch Blues” and “That’s How I’m Feeling” from 2024’s “No Name.”

Following that, White’s serpentine maneuvering through his career catalog included nods to The White Stripes (“Black Math,” “The Hardest Button to Button”), The Dead Weather (“I Cut Like a Buffalo”) and The Raconteurs (“Broken Boy Soldier,” “Steady As She Goes”) along with his own hefty solo repertoire.

Backed by Davis (sporting a Detroit Lions T-shirt), drummer Patrick Keeler from The Raconteurs and organist Bobby Emmett, White commanded the stage as always in his return to the venue that he last played in 2018 (with a stop at Van Andel Arena in between).

The non-stop rock train that barely even paused between songs oozed a punk attitude with an improvisational jazz edginess — exuding the feeling that anything could happen at any moment, like standing at the edge of a precipice but never tumbling into the jagged rocks below.

Instead, White adeptly showed off everything from his seminal blues influences to classic rock sensibilities to metal-tinged rowdiness, ranging from 2012’s “Love Interruption” to the staccato beats of 2024’s “What’s the Rumpus” and the slide-guitar romp of “Underground” that had White skipping gleefully back and forth across the stage while flashing his very white shoes.

Throughout it all, the prodigious and uniquely White-esque guitar leads and vocalizations ignited a fervent crowd response, culminating in the requisite-but-delicious “Seven Nation Army” uncorked during a lengthy encore.

To be honest, the actual selections in Tuesday’s on-the-fly set list (or any set list on this tour) didn’t really matter because every song oozed full-throttle, Michigan rock ecstasy — proving there’s no rock ‘n’ roll show like a Jack White rock ‘n’ roll show.

More about Jack White at Local Spins: Jack White, Dominic John Davis revel in unpredictability as global tour hits GR

PHOTO GALLERY: Jack White at GLC Live at 20 Monroe
Photos by David James Swanson

SET LIST: Jack White at GLC Live at 20 Monroe
Setlist.fm

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