Jack White at American Legion Post 82, 7/27/2024
Rock ’n’ roll may be dead as a monocultural force, but it was alive and well Saturday night at American Legion Post 82 in Inglewood when Jack White came to play.
The East Side outpost of the veterans affairs organization might seem like an odd location for the first full show of the year from one of the world’s biggest rock stars, but the Legion has long been an integral venue in the local music scene. Plus, White is one of our foremost advocates for physical media and analog processes, so it’s fitting he would break his live-performance drought for a benefit concert to help upgrade the P.A. at an old-school venue like the Legion.
That was one of several things that made this an extra-special occasion. Another was the live debut of songs from White’s new album, soft-released by nonchalantly slipping plain copies labeled “No Name” to Third Man Records customers on July 19. The show also marked the maiden voyage of the latest incarnation of his touring band, a trio of seasoned players consisting of his longtime bassman Dominic Davis, Raconteurs alum Patrick Keeler on drums and keyboardist Bobby Emmett, who you’ll have heard or seen with Sturgill Simpson. The group and opening act Wolf Twin thoroughly tested the limits of the venue’s newly installed sound system — my ears are still ringing as I write this.
Fronted by Nashville songsmith and former Legion bartender Heather Gillis, Wolf Twin played a kickass 30-minute set of honey-and-sandpaper fuzz-rock jams. The simplicity of the setup — Gillis on vocals and guitar with Dallas Dawson on drums — harkened back to the early days of The White Stripes, adding to the night’s Meet Me in the Bathroom vibe. Judging by the in-unison head nods visible across the crowd during the set, Wolf Twin made fans of a number of attendees who may have previously been unfamiliar with Gillis’ music.
Following a typically eclectic mix of pre-show tunes (with White’s love for both ’90s boom-bap and ’70s funk shining through), the men of the hour took the stage for a tight 50 minutes packed with brand-new tunes. I hadn’t heard the new record prior to the show, despite the prevalence of bootlegs thanks to White’s call for fans to “rip it”; when White announced that the album would be for sale on vinyl afterward, I thought I might get trampled as fans made a beeline for the merch table.
Per the jacket of the commercially available copies, the album is indeed called No Name; we’ll have to wait for more information about a wider release. Album opener “Old Scratch Blues” and deeper cut “Morning at Midnight” were played at the show, among a smattering of older songs that mostly skipped 2018’s Boarding House Reach and 2022’s Fear of the Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive.
The new songs are a throwback to the bombastic snarl of White’s early solo days. Following a run of increasingly experimental music over his past three albums, these fit right alongside standout cuts from Blunderbuss and Lazaretto; the crowd clearly loved the hard-charging energy. Before dismissal, White & Co. returned for a four-song encore consisting mostly of White Stripes songs: the duo’s breakout hit “Fell in Love With a Girl,” “I Think I Smell a Rat,” White solo staple “Lazaretto” and one of my all-time favorite songs, “Ball and Biscuit.”
Fans got to hear a mix of hot-off-the-presses music and old favorites, and White got to help a beloved local institution carry on its mission. Chalk up Saturday night as a win for everyone.
