Not a whole lot to say about this show. If you're a fan of Jack White, you probably listened to it live via the Sirius XM broadcast or found it online after the fact. If that's the case, I was wondering if those listening live at home were wondering what the hell Jack was talking about when he was thanking his special guests including Zack de la Rocha since he never joined White on stage.
Jack had Run The Jewels open the show and since it was announced that the live broadcast would start at 9pm, everyone knew exactly what time they could hit up the local bars without missing anything. Well they missed something pretty cool.
Run The Jewels came on right at 8:00pm and I would guess about 10% of the sold out crowd saw their set. I'll be honest, we almost missed it too. The plan was definitely to have another hour worth of drinks in one of the local establishments, but we couldn't find that right mix of crowd and music/jukebox so we headed in a few minutes before eight.
I didn't know much about Run The Jewels other than the recent announcement that they would be releasing a remixed version of their album made with cat meow's. I checked out two songs on youtube one of which had the intriguing title of "Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)"
Well eight songs and about a half hour into their set, they broke that one out. I was doing the nice buzz head bob when they announced Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine who came out about midway in the song.
First of all Zack looked and sounded great and it just makes you wonder why isn't he doing something on a regular basis. I first saw Rage Against The Machine at Lollapalooza in the summer of '93, but the blow away factor happened on December 1 of that year when they did a tour with Cypress Hill co-headlining (and Funkdoobiest and the amazing Seven Year Bitch opening). The show was so great all around that we drove to CT a few days later to catch it again.
Other than that, I last saw Zack live with Rage at Woodstock '99 where they were really good, but they were following Limp Bizkit who had just about started a riot and I always felt they held back a bit knowing they could have more or less blown the place up if they wanted to.
I wasn't able to catch any of the few reunion shows since and hard to say if we'll ever have another chance, but Zack needs to be out there. Those few in attendance at MSG a week and a half ago would definitely "Testify" to that. (yeah sorry...I tried, but I had to go there).
So anyway...that was really cool. Run The Jewels also had two different guest guitarists join them, but I couldn't catch their names and in reviewing the photos I didn't recognize them. If anyone knows who they were, let me know and if you want I'll post some more pics.
So there you go...as for Jack White's set, I'll put the set list below if you haven't seen it yet, but I'd say go check it out and give it a listen for yourself, it's easy to find online. It was a great show and I've posted a few photos below as well (click any of them to super size). The first time I saw Jack was with Meg in 2002 at the Birch Hill Nite Club in NJ on the White Stripes' White Blood Cells tour...he was fantastic then and has been every time I've seen him since. On this current tour he has an incredible five piece backing band (Lillie Mae Rische on violin/fiddle and vocals, Dominic John Davis on bass, Fats Kaplin on a plethora of instruments, Dean Fertita on keyboards and Daru Jones on piano) that easily keep up with the made up as he went along setlist with numerous audibles to the band as the show went on.
The highlight of the show for me was the end of the main set (an amazing "Ball and Biscuit") then opening the encore set with special guest Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest guesting on "The Black Bat Licorice" into a cover of "Excursions" the opening track off A Tribe Called Quest's classic 1991 album "The Low End Theory".
While those there for the opening were all wishing for a Jack/Zack collaboration, this was quite the consolation prize.
Setlist:
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
High Ball Stepper
Lazaretto
Hotel Yorba
Temporary Ground
Cannon
Broken Boy Soldier
Cannon (reprise)
Love Interruption
We're Going To Be Friends
Three Women
Black Math (intro into)
Top Yourself
Ball and Biscuit
Encore:
The Black Bat Licorice (with Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest)
Excursions (A Tribe Called Quest cover)
Sixteen Saltines
Astro
Steady, As She Goes
Would You Fight For My Love?
Just One Drink
Blunderbuss
Seven Nation Army
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