finally saw the great man
great idea having restricted phone access and Jack and his band were simply amazing
Posted by jonny h on 23/10/2018
Jack White, O2 Academy Birmingham, Birmingham - 17th October 2018
What a live performance should be
I found the Eventim Apollo quick as a flash especially as, what seemed to me, to be thousands of people waiting in a queue for something imminent. I looked around and, believe it or not, there are a lot of Jack White tickets in these people's hands. Steel barriers hemmed them into a sinuous line snaking its way to the entrance of a former Art Deco cinema. Could this be the Hammersmith Palais mentioned in the Clashs' song? Outside, large banners announced that this performance would be phone free and we were all given green pouches to contain them for the time spent in the cinema.
Once we had emptied our pockets and been scanned, it was time for the merchandise. This time, the T-shirt with the tour dates on it was black long sleeved one with blue lettering imitating the constellations with the tour dates written by their side mingling within these graphics. Only now is it time to enter the stalls (this is the first time, as far as I remember, that I have been standing at a concert). Fortunately, the ground drops severely towards the stage, so, so long as there are no tall people in the way, and there are not too many people crowding into view, there is a good chance that everyone should be able to see what is going on. Let's wait and see.
Now it was time for the well rehearsed roadies to do their stuff that took rather a long time to complete their transformation of the stage latterly with a frustratingly timed wait using a digital clock which made it even worse. It must have been 20 minutes before the five musicians entered stage left.
What followed was a beautifully choreographed improvised jam/dub session which included excerpts and prolonged sections of half remembered songs (the choruses of which were recited by most of the audience) accompanied by spectacular light shows, smoke – but not mirror – projecting either a film of what is happening on stage across three screens, graphics to go with a particular song (pictorial or interstellar (astronomy)/multicellular (microscopy)/blue lined representations of the stage action.)
Everything was interjected with Jack's high/screaming voice and the powerful punching rhythm pounded out by the female drummer Carla Azar - as well as the ghostly Jack at its centre augmenting their sound. At one stage Jack joined in on a second drum for one song. Throughout you can tell that Jack was really enjoying himself, especially at the beginning and towards the end, when he shouted/screamed excitable comments rarely at intervals during the performance.
You could see (if you looked around) young lovers, fathers and sons, friends and acquaintances, all having a great time moving to the beat, dancing and singing, clapping and slapping their way through. After an encore lasting three or four more songs and improvisation/dub/jamming, it was time to exit which took a very long time. Whilst this was happening, I saw a couple (the man clearly had enjoyed himself, sweat pouring off his face and hands). I asked him if he had enjoyed himself. He answered in a French accent, "It was sick. Fantastic!" High fives all round.
The reluctant audience eventually spilled out onto the street after spending their money on the merchandise. Outside, the bootleggers had their wares (T-shirts) for sale and the crowd dispersed into the night.
Posted by S on 30/06/2018
Jack White, Eventim Apollo, London - 26th June 2018
