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The White Stripes: April 17, 1999 Detroit, MI

An exclusive archive from The White Stripes just dropped for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring April 17, 1999 from Detroit, MI!

Sign up for a free trial now to hear this newly mastered show plus the entire Third Man Records archival catalog. From White Stripes archivist/historian Ben Blackwell on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ release:

There are moments, ever so brief, that feel like an entire room has catalyzed and are all speaking the same language. Even if speaking vaguely or in code, everyone understands fully.

So while I cannot speak for the rest of the 100 or so folks that were at the Magic Stick on April 17th, 1999, I can speak to how *I* felt.

For establishing purposes, exactly 25 years ago, on April 17th, 1999 the White Stripes played in the middle of a bill with Gore Gore Girls opening and the Compulsive Gamblers headlining. I was sixteen years old.

Barely a month earlier, it appeared that the White Stripes were done. With their cessation being reported in the Detroit News, the fact that a DAILY newspaper was covering such underground countercultural gossip still feels beguiling. Yet in the span of a few weeks, the Stripes had played a triumphant non-farewell show (March 13th, 1999) and were most definitely soldiering on, while Jack White’s other current musical concern, the Go, had unceremoniously kicked him out.

I guess this was relatively big news in the small world of Detroit garage rock. In hindsight, it seems pretty insignificant. So when the Stripes roll into “Astro” at the tail end of their set and Jack substitutes in the names of his former bandmates in the Go “Bobby”, “Marc” and “John” as “do(es) the astro” the feeling in the air, to me, was “oh man, he’s giving it to ‘em.”

To follow it up with the ending verse impromptu singing “Maybe someone has an ego!”

and “Why don’t you do what you want to, girl?” (with what I would interpret as foreshadowing of future attack-like songs as “There’s No Home For You Here (Girl)” and “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine”) and it all had the allure of an up-to-the-minute newscast, made up in real time, for the couple dozens friends and scenesters gathered there that evening, all of whom knew the score.

As the song concluded, you faintly hear a request for the Go song “Meet Me At The Movies” to which Jack replies on mic “Somebody wanna hear “Meet Me At The Movies?” It’s the wrong band!”

The Stripes performance, overall, is just so different from any single show they’d ever played before or would play after. First ever appearances of gems like covers of Iggy Pop’s “I’m Bored” and Earl King’s “Trick Bag” (done in the style of the Gories) alongside Jack and Meg’s first ever performance of “The Same Boy You’ve Always Known.” They also cover Brendan Benson’s “Crosseyed” for seemingly the only time ever with Brendan himself smack dab front and center watching the proceedings.

Interesting little moments abound…the show-opening “I’m Bored” is quickly scuttled as Meg’s bass drum pedal snaps. She coordinates a quick replacement with Deb Agolli (drummer for openers the Gore Gore Girls) that precipitates Jack’s solo take on “Trick Bag”

(For years my recall is that I was up there helping Meg attach the borrowed pedal to her kick drum. But just now, at this moment, I’m half-thinking that I watched it from the crowd. In my head, I see Deb, coincidentally wearing red and white, behind the drums with Meg. But I also see myself crouched down, futzing in the dark, helping Meg. The video of the show conveniently shows neither myself nor Deb onstage during any of this. There’s a possibility my memories are lies)

But once all is back up-to-speed, Jack just starts “I’m Bored” from the beginning.

There’s a simplicity to taking the song from the top, an innocence to it, a “we’re gonna do this right” stick-to-it-iveness that I tend to think most bands would not actually endeavor. Most bands would just move past it and try to pretend that they never even attempted the song in the first place, let alone start their set with it.

And that’s just one of many reasons why the White Stripes were objectively great from such an early point in their career.

Other treats include an early run of “The Big Three Killed My Baby” that does not start with the trilling three scratches of the guitar. Seemingly every version performed afterwards would start just like the album recording…with those ominous trills. Jack introduces Meg as his little sister. Jack also, for the first time we’ve documented, signed off the show with a “My sister thanks you and I thank you.” Little Easter eggs all of them.

And while there’s no real evidence here to point to proving so, we all know that this is the evening that Jack White would pay a couple hundred bucks to Compulsive Gambler’s Jack Yarber for his red Airline guitar that in short order would become an iconic piece of the White Stripes imagery.

My favorite moment of the entire show unfolds in the middle break of “Astro” where Jack drops a curveball…

What did the hen dog say to the snake?
No more crawfish in this lake
Just a hair, just a little bit, just a hair, just a little bit
Well what did the woman who came to the side,
one hand on her leg, one hand on her thigh
Good lord, have mercy, good lord, have mercy

This is a slightly altered take on George Johnson’s version of “Jack The Rabbit” as featured in the 1978 John Lomax film The Land Where The Blues Began. Johnson was a gandy dancer, a now-obsolete job of manual railroad track maintenance. This is a work song, plain and simple, Johnson’s repeated lines of “just a hair, just a little bit” actually instructions to the rest of his crew in regards to which increment or degree they should be adjusting the track. It’s chilling, it’s got unforced attitude, it’s beautiful.

In sharing this clip with Jack this week, twenty-five years later, he said he had absolutely no recollection of what it was or where it even came from.

But it felt so familiar, both then and now. Like a nursery rhyme I’d heard my entire life. Like something EVERYONE had heard their entire life, certainly everyone in the room. Like it was meant to be there, that it had always been there, and would always be there, smack dab in the middle of “Astro.”

The point I’m trying to make is that for these fleeting moments on this night, the demarcation of stage and floor were largely irrelevant. What was happening wasn’t a band playing for a crowd. What was happening was a conversation, an education, a therapy, a laugh, a finger-pointing, all wrapped into one. And so much of it, hell, maybe all of it, happened just that once, seemingly to be experienced only by those in the room. Fleeting.

So should you give a shit that this is effectively a spruced-up audience recording? Not in the least. Just sit back and enjoy all the swirling different factors and reactors that melted together to create a one-of-a-kind evening a quarter of a century ago.

Stream this new show and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

The White Stripes: April 20, 2003 Boston, MA and May 19, 2003 Berlin, DE

Two exclusive archives from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring two 2003 shows; Boston on April 20 and Berlin on May 19. Sign up for a free trial now to hear these new shows plus the entire Third Man Records archival catalog.

From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

They’re Gonna Talk About You Still

When Jack White appeared in the film It Might Get Loud, he chose two influences to share with the cameras: Son House, the blues singer and guitarist – whose birthday it is today, and Flat Duo Jets, the two-piece band fronted by Dexter Romweber – who passed away last month. In tribute to those artists and the lasting power of influence, here are the White Stripes performances from Boston, where the band performed a cover of Flat Duo Jets’ Don’t Blame Me, and Berlin, where they brought Son House’s Grinnin’ In Your Face to the masses. Two of the band’s most widely shared concerts, each originally captured off the radio and circulated by fans. Like the music of those key influences, these performances are both familiar and essential, re-shared here upgraded and unedited for the first time.

With only 4 weeks between them, the concerts from Boston and Berlin reveal just how quickly the band’s performances were developing. Boston is a spontaneous run-through, with the new songs rapidly settling into their proper live versions, pure risk-taking live on the air. Berlin pushes the set further, resulting in an explosive ninety-minute go, one of the longest broadcasts the band had ever done. As soon as these shows hit the airwaves, they were immediately shared by fans as must-hear recordings from the tour.

During an interview before the show in Boston, the band were asked whether maintaining simplicity was still a goal, with Jack confirming “I don’t really want to evolve or grow in the band at all. I don’t want that false pretense, or to try and second guess things. We like living in this box we’ve created very much, and we don’t want to change.” And yet, even with that commitment, the Boston concert would be held at the Orpheum, a venue twice the size of the ones played on previous tours, and the Berlin concert would get moved from the Casino to the larger Columbiahalle, one of the first times that had happened to the band. So, while they may have been able to keep some things the same, they couldn’t stop others from evolving around them.

The spirit of wanting to preserve things would get echoed in other interviews, when discussing the band’s influences: “It’s wonderful to have influences. It’s wonderful to join that tradition of songwriters and storytellers, and join that family…telling the same story your way.” One of those stories was also Jack’s favorite song, Grinning In Your Face, by the blues legend Son House. Even though the band had been performing the song at shows going back to 1999, the Berlin broadcast would be the first time that most fans had ever heard it – included here as part of Death Letter. Notable too, as the song was from a record that wouldn’t have existed if not for a group of young fans inspired by the out-of-print recordings of the bluesman, going on a road trip in 1964 with the hopes that they could track him down and convince him to make music again. The result of that effort was the record “Father of Folk Blues” which Jack would discover by hearing John the Revelator played over the PA before a Radiohead concert. Just as John the Revelator would get memorialized on the White Stripes debut album, and Death Letter on De Stijl, the performance of Grinning In Your Face on the Berlin broadcast would serve as a key reference point of the Stripes covering the song. The band’s day in Berlin would turn out to be especially productive in that regard, as the soundcheck would also see them record a cover of Soledad Brothers’ St Ides of March, which would be released later that year as the B-side to The Hardest Button To Button.

Jack had been introduced to Flat Duo Jet’s “Go Go Harlem Baby” around the time he was working at an upholstery shop. And while Son House’s music would serve as a perfect example of the band re-telling a story their way, when the Stripes covered the Duo Jets, they played it faithful – true to the source. Don’t Blame Me was itself a cover, a story that singer and guitarist Dexter Romweber had re-told his way, but when the Stripes played it, they did it like Dex did. And just like Grinnin’ In Your Face at Berlin, the performance of Don’t Blame Me at Boston was also the first time that most fans had ever heard that song. The occasion was all the more significant because Dex was on the bill that night, performing with his sister Sara as the Dexter Romweber Duo, making the Stripes’ cover of Don’t Blame Me the rare experience of being able to pay tribute to someone who influenced you, with them actually in the room. When later asked how he felt about the impact that Flat Duo Jets had on others, Dex was gracious: “There are musicians that have influenced me that came before me that people don’t necessarily know about. It’s all just a natural lineage of stuff handed down. I’m not lost on the fact that people influenced me either. So, if Jack got something out of those records or he saw something that was valuable to him, I thought that was a positive thing because I had done the same thing.” In 2011, Third Man Records would reissue “Go Go Harlem Baby” on vinyl after being long out-of-print, continuing to pay that influence forward.

Everything has a source. Just as the mighty Mississippi starts as a small lake in Minnesota, that too gets fed by the creeks and springs around it. You can never fully go upstream, just as you can’t predict where something will go once it’s released, or how it might influence others. Just as these shows were spread by fans, here’s a reminder to go check out Son House’s “Father of Folk Blues” and Flat Duo Jets’ “Go Go Harlem Baby”, music kept in the light by those who understood that when you discover something good – whether on an out-of-print record, a song overheard at a concert, or a band’s performance on a radio broadcast – the best thing you can do is to share it with others, and let that love keep shining on.

4/20/03 Boston – Orpheum Theatre

Listen to the show here.

Originally broadcast on the radio, Boston would be the first time that many fans would get to hear the new songs from Elephant performed live. Even though parts of the band’s opening concert from London had been broadcast a few weeks earlier, the performance from Boston is the one that feels like the proper return to the stage, especially given how accessible the show would be to fans. The concert at the Orpheum was the band’s second show this Easter Sunday, as they had also performed a brief set earlier in the afternoon for a group of contest winners at the nearby Paradise. For as familiar as this show is, it’s amazing when you realize how many risks the band took on this night. After the opening trio of Black Math, Dead Leaves, and Let’s Shake Hands, the first surprise arrives during I Think I Smell A Rat, with a cover of Party of Special Things to Do by Captain Beefheart, a rarity released as a 7 inch a few years before, but only played live a handful of times. You can hear Jack call out for the bass drum pattern “boom, boom, boom, boom…” just before kicking off the verses. This spontaneity can also be heard in the version of You’re Pretty Good Looking, with Jack pausing after the first verse to shout “gimme a click, Meg!”, singing the rest of the lyrics in the swing style that he would use at other shows throughout the year. Even though it was still early in the tour, the new songs were also getting updated, which you can hear in the performance of The Hardest Button to Button, with the vocals having shifted away from the deadpan delivery heard on the album to an all-out scream. Death Letter features the quote from Motherless Children before abruptly closing, indicating that something must have happened with the guitar. Rather than attempt a restart, Jack moves to the keyboards and performs an impromptu cover of Red Bird, an on-the-fly debut of the Leadbelly song. The show gets to a truly unique moment with the debut of Don’t Blame Me, an homage to one of Jack’s key influences, Flat Duo Jets. A special occasion, given that Duo Jets’ singer and guitarist Dex Romweber was the opener on this night, performing as part of a new duo with his sister Sara. Just like the show with Loretta Lynn in New York the night before, Boston is one of the few times when the band would get to share a bill with one of their musical idols. A week later they would do it again, opening for the Stooges at Coachella. As they close the show, the band go out on a high note, leaving the audience and the listeners wanting more, with Jack holding back laughter as he leads the crowd to the final verse in Boll Weevil.

5/19/03 Berlin – Columbiahalle

Listen to the show here.

Just as the broadcast from Boston felt like the band’s official return to the stage, the way they sounded on the broadcast from Berlin was as if they’d suddenly hit their live peak. Having been moved from the Casino to the larger Columbiahalle due to demand, the band’s setlist is similarly expanded here, a masterful 30+ song display. Coming just weeks after the breakout shows in April and the exploratory performances in Scandinavia, Berlin takes the Elephant set and firmly baselines it into a 90 minute powerhouse. Like watching a racehorse lap effortlessly around the track, over and over, they just sound so healthy here. From the whammy-and-feedback opening in Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground to the final singalong in Boll Weevil, you get the full course – a virtual blueprint for the rest of the Elephant tour. The Hardest Button To Button gets a unique spot near the top of the set just after the openers, which extends the energy rush to great effect. Listen for the ad libbed line “Beating up Swanson and Damstra with a baseball bat!”, a funny reference to tourmates Whirlwind Heat during the marathon version of I Think I Smell A Rat, which also features When I Hear My Name, Take a Whiff On Me, and Mr Cellophane, now in its official live arrangement – complete with Jack letting the audience know when it’s time to adjust the rhythm of their clapping. After an excellent Hypnotize, Jack introduces the band to the audience with an appropriate “Hot and sweaty in Berlin!”. Death Letter follows and is just about perfect, complete with Jack yelling “Let’s go Meg!” which she responds to by joining him in a run that culminates with a fantastic burst on the kick drum. This sets up Grinnin’ In Your Face, one of the first times that listeners had ever heard the band perform the Son House song live. Again, just about perfect. There are performance highlights all over this show, including the adlib of “I can tell that we are going to be friends…Berlin, Berlin, Berlin” and the nod to Burt Bacharach and Marlene Dietrich before Look Me Over Closely. Even the out of tune guitar that pops up during the transition from Let’s Build A Home into Goin’ Back to Memphis still ends up resulting in a wonderful improvisation that they use to push through and close the main set. The encores play out like a continuous medley, including a complete version of Fell In Love With A Girl, the rare occurrence when they played the song in full. Having also used the soundcheck to record the future B-side cover of Soledad Brothers’ St Ides Of March, on this night they really could do no wrong. Do yourself a favor and fall in love with Berlin all over again, a mandatory performance from the Elephant tour.

Stream these three new shows and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

The White Stripes: January 2004 London, UK and Paris, FR

An exclusive archive from The White Stripes is now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring one night in London and one night in Paris from early 2004. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

Staring down one of the longest breaks they would have since first taking the stage at the Gold Dollar on Bastille Day 6 years earlier, Jack and Meg return to their “home away from home” in London, before heading to Paris to close out this phase of the Elephant tour at the appropriately named “Zenith”.

Having just completed the filming at Blackpool, rather than rest on their laurels for these final two shows, the band were still pulling out surprises and making each one unique right to the end, with London getting impromptu quotes from George M. Cohan’s The Yankee Doodle Boy and Leadbelly’s Red Bird, and Paris getting a performance of The Kills’ Superstition along with an uber-rare update of Diddy Wah Diddy – a song not performed live since 1999, when the band opened for the great Wayne Kramer.

The London performance would coincide with another milestone, as earlier in the day Jack would sit down for what would end up being the final interview with DJ John Peel, who would pass away later that year. The two spent the time playing records for each other, chatting about movies, and of course discussing the Stripes’ success – of which Peel certainly played a role in, having hosted the band on his show during their first visit to the UK back in 2001. When asked “So, where do you go next?”, Jack’s response was a mix of relief and closure: “We’re done with ‘Elephant’ and we’re not touring any more on that album. So, I just need a break. We’ve toured the world on it, and I’ve gotta get inspired again.” True to that feeling, the session ends with Jack performing songs solo on the acoustic – including covers of songs by Blanche, Loretta Lynn, and a song that he had written for Cold Mountain which the producers had declined to use. As if bringing the cycle with Peel full circle, Jack also performed Jack the Ripper, a callback to that first session in 2001, here a stripped-down version played at the DJ’s request.

In a way, the period between that first Peel appearance in July 2001 and the final one in February 2004 was like a 2 ½ year trek up a mountain, where Jack and Meg had gone from being the small band that few had heard about, to an internationally known live act who were days away from completing a successful world tour. Having enjoyed the kind of 360 degree view one would get from the top of a peak by traveling across the globe, it’s fitting that the final show of the tour would be at a venue named The Zenith. And while the performance in London happened to coincide with a final visit with Peel, who had helped kick off a sort of reverse Beatlemania for the band (the final interview also taking place on the 35th anniversary of the Beatles final live performance on the Apple rooftop), the performance in Paris just so happened to take place on the eve of La Chandeleur, the French observation of Candlemas, which marks the end of the Christmas period. One last day on tour, before the decorations finally get taken down.

And just as soon as they finished in Paris, they would fly to Los Angeles for the Grammys on February 8th, exactly 1 year and a day after the first live preview of Elephant at London’s Electric Cinema. Putting on the red and black trousers one last time, the band tore through an epic Seven Nation Army, complete with a surprise version of Death Letter included within it. A watershed moment, capped off by Seven Nation Army winning “Best Rock Song”, and Elephant winning “Best Alternative Music Album”.

The significance of the Grammys performance mirrors that of the first Peel broadcast. Where one was like a secret transmission audible only to those in the know, the other was a takeover of every channel on the dial, an instant conversion of the masses. It’s a funny thing when a band spends a year touring, and then has a moment like that, right as they go off the road. As if they should get right back out there and do it all again, to capitalize on that momentum. How many times have you seen a band suddenly become that visible (just days later, SNL would even make a sketch about them), only to look up their touring schedule and find out that they had already come around months, if not a year earlier? And for the fans who were there from the beginning, it’s as if now suddenly the entire world sees what you knew all along. Random co-workers ask if you’ve heard of this band. Relatives and friends tell you that they saw that group you like on TV. It’s one thing to reach a peak when only a few people know about it. When now everyone knows about it, that’s the true zenith.

1/30/04 London
Brixton Academy

Listen to the show here.

Returning to the city where Elephant was recorded, Brixton Academy joins the Masonic in Detroit and the Aragon in Chicago as one of the three venues to get a repeat visit on the Elephant tour. Having previously broadcast a performance at the Academy when they last visited in April 2003, the release here closes the gap of 2004 being the only year when they played in the UK not to have some kind of “Live in London” out there. Like the December 2001 broadcast, where the band had also played London earlier in that tour and then came back for a closing show, this show feels a lot like a radio broadcast that never was, a perfect encore performance capturing the band putting on a near-flawless set. After the openers of Black Math and Dead Leaves, Jack greets the crowd with “London! Our home away from home!” and it’s right into When I Hear My Name, which features an impromptu verse from George M. Cohan’s The Yankee Doodle Boy, complete with Jack modifying the lyrics to reference his own birthday “A real life nephew of my Uncle Sam, Born on the 9th of July!”. While the UK had adopted them as family, an unabashed reminder of their American roots. The ending of the song features a frantic run of soloing with the whammy, which like the inclusion of Leadbelly’s Redbird in I Think I Smell A Rat, is proof of just how much they still had left in the tank, even as they prepared to close out the tour. Listen for Jack singing along to the end of In the Cold Cold Night, and Meg returning the favor by again singing along during This Protector, where you can just about hear a pin drop in the venue. The main set goes out heavy with Ball and Biscuit, with amateur video of the performance showing Jack close the song by thrashing around next to Meg’s kit, even knocking a stand over, before going to the floor and letting the feedback ring out as he leaves the stage. Before Seven Nation Army, Jack asks “Is everybody friends with the person next to them? You make sure of that now. Cuz Meg and I aren’t leaving until every one of you get a friend on either side of you, okay?” The version of Seven Nation Army here features the opening line of “I’m gonna kiss ’em off” which was unique to the three London shows. Before closing with Boll Weevil, Jack introduces it as “an old song”, as if now officially able to refer to the days before Elephant as being from another time in the band’s history. Even though this is the end of the tour, they leave the stage letting the crowd know that they won’t be gone too long: “We’ll see you guys at Reading and Leeds festivals in August, all right?”

2/1/04 Paris
Le Zenith

Listen to the show here.

With a 6 month break just days away, it’s fitting that the final show of the tour opens with the line “When I hear my name, I want to disappear” and closes with “I just don’t know what to do with myself”. Having ended their first show in Paris back in 2001 with Jack proclaiming “Lafayette, we have returned!”, he couldn’t have predicted just how far the band would rise since then, as he tells the audience at the Zenith, “Good Lord, there’s so many of you!”. No doubt happy to be closing out the tour, there is a feeling of movement in this show, as the band confidently go from song to song. Listen as Meg enters early in Love Sick, with Jack giving an audible “Yeah!” in approval. There’s another moment like this during Ball and Biscuit, with Jack heard asking for “just one now” and Meg responding with a single hit on the drums, right on time. Perfect reminders of just how tightly connected the two were on stage. While many of the familiar songs in the set would carry over into the band’s eventual return in August, In the Cold Cold Night would get its final performance of the year, not to be performed again until the Get Behind Me Satan tour in 2005. And even though the set is mostly filled with songs that they had played dozens of times on the tour, many of the performances feel as if updated for the occasion of this being the last show. During I Fought Piranhas, the line “Who puts up a fight walking out of hell?” never sounded so appropriate, and the version of The Same Boy You’ve Always Known is played as if having been written for that moment when it’s time to say goodbye. Never ones to go quietly, Cannon gets a rare inclusion of Diddy Wah Diddy, a song only played one other time back in 1999, and gets followed by The Big Three Killed My Baby with Jack riffing on everything from George Bush, the auto companies, and a declaration that “America’s mind is lazy!” before going into a chant of “I’m about to tell the news Meg!” – thoroughly getting it all in for this final performance. After Jack the Ripper they also slot in an impromptu cover of the song Superstition by The Kills. Unlike the quote of the song at LA on 9/22/03, here it gets played complete with the original riff. In the encores, Lafayette Blues serves as the perfect setup before they close the show with I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, with Jack thanking France for being “the country that produced Michel Gondry”. Having now wrapped a year’s worth of touring going out on a high at the Zenith, the farewell of “My sister thanks you, and I thank you! Good night Paris!” is delivered as if literally shouted from the top of a mountain.

Stream these three new shows and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

The White Stripes: January 2004 Glasgow, Scotland

An exclusive archive from The White Stripes is now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring a two night stand in Glasgow from January 2004. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

January 2004: Glasgow, Scotland

Scottish Nation Army

Just weeks after the New Years Eve show in Chicago, the band were back across the pond once more, to perform a final run of concerts in the UK and France. These shows in Glasgow took place at the midpoint of the tour, and were the last stop before they’d be under the lights and the cameras at Blackpool. Being of Scottish descent, Jack and Meg were back in “the homeland”, playing to audiences of 5,000 fellow Scots in the aptly-named Hall 3 of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. On a tour where each show was a consistently excellent performance, what makes the Glasgow concerts special is that together they represent the moment when Seven Nation Army officially became an anthem.

While already on a steady path through the stadiums of Europe, the now ubiquitous “Seven Nation Army” riff had already been chanted by audiences at the band’s live shows pretty much right from the first time it was performed live. Having been released to radio just weeks before the start of the Elephant tour in February 2003, crowds quickly went from clapping in time to the riff at the opening show in Wolverhampton, to singing along to the riff at Manchester the very next night. Nearly a year later, and it’s at the first night in Glasgow where the participation from the audience would reach a kind of critical mass. With so many versions played at the shows before this, the ones at Glasgow are different. On the recording from the first night, you can even hear Jack’s reaction as he starts the song and the crowd of 5,000 immediately begin chanting the riff in unison, causing him to delay his entry into the first verse. The very next night, the crowd would do it again. Where other audiences may have chanted the riff or sung the lyrics to the first line before respectfully getting out of the way so as to enjoy the rest of the song, Glasgow is the moment when the audience didn’t get out of the way. Like a Scottish war cry, the audiences here aren’t just singing along, the band and the crowd are performing the song together.

As if the universe couldn’t possibly let this kind of moment happen without also letting its polar opposite exist within the same time and space, the triumph of the Seven Nation Army chant at Glasgow is met with an equally unique moment from the crowd, as it’s at the first show where a member of the audience throws a shoe which hits Jack square in the face during the encore of “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself.” Rather than let it ruin the evening, Jack responds by immediately launching into a defiant Astro and Jack the Ripper, with the audience roaring in approval in the background. Having completely erased any impact from the incident, he then closes the show by restarting “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” not missing a beat, with the audience again right there and singing along to every word.

After that first show, in an almost too-good-to-be-true coincidence, the second performance in Glasgow just happened to take place on Burns Night, the annual celebration of the birth of Scottish poet Robert Burns, the author of Auld Lang Syne. One of the most recognized songs in the world, the poem that Burns wrote was originally put to a different melody, but as it spread it eventually evolved into the song now known the world over, which gets sung every year on New Year’s Eve. As eloquent as the lyrics to that song are, many only get as far as the opening line of “Should auld acquaintance be forgot” before losing track of the words that follow, while the melody has a more permanent place in our collective consciousness, instantly recognizable from the very first notes. At some point, after a song reaches that level of popularity, it becomes a kind of folk music, where the people singing it, or chanting it, get to decide what the song means, or how it should be sung. Once that happens, it doesn’t really matter what the words are. Sound familiar?

1/24/04 Glasgow – Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre – LISTEN NOW

Kicking off the only two-night stand of the tour to take place entirely on a weekend, the band return to Scotland with an epic show. As much as this one is all about the band’s excellent performance, it’s perhaps the audience who steal the show. You can hear them in full force from the very beginning, singing along to lines in “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” “Hotel Yorba,” and even singing along to the melodies of “In the Cold, Cold Night and I Think I Smell a Rat.” No surprise that they turn “Seven Nation Army” into a definitive moment where the sound of the crowd chanting is nearly as powerful as the sound of the band playing the song. The setlist also features multiple rarities, with “Stop Breaking Down” getting the first airing since the Livid Festival performance at Melbourne, complete with the adlib of Stones “In My Passway” by Robert Johnson. This night also gets an even more rare outing of “You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket,” followed by the final live performance of “Hypnotize.” Reflecting the intimacy and connection so present at this show, “We’re Going to Be Friends” gets dedicated to the red headed women and soccer players with long black hair in the crowd, which elicits an audible laugh from Meg. While a shoe-throwing attendee could have otherwise spoiled such a special show by hitting Jack in the face during the encore of “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” the band respond defiantly with a fantastic “Astro” and “Jack the Ripper,” before calmly returning to the song to close the show, again to full audience singalong.

1/25/04 Glasgow – Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre – LISTEN NOW

Night 2, and the band put the jukebox on shuffle. The fantastic run starting with “When I Hear My Name” goes all the way through a cover of Dylan’s “Outlaw Blues,” with the line “I might look like Jacky White, but I feel like Jesse James”, into “Cannon,” which includes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Man,” “St James Infirmary,” “I Think I Smell a Rat,” and “Take a Whiff On Me” before returning to the “Cannon” solo and closing out with a single riff from “Ball and Biscuit.” The rarities continue at this show, as an excellent “Suzy Lee” gets followed by a funny moment where Jack briefly forgets the name of the song after it, “This one is called….uh, what is this called?…Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise!” “The Hardest Button to Button” gets the always welcome “brain that felt like peanut butter” line, and just as the audience singalongs were the highlight of the first night, here it’s the singalong that Jack and Meg do together on “This Protector,” making it perhaps the very best version of this understated song that you’re likely to hear. As the band plow through the rest of the excellent set, “Offend In Every Way” jump-cuts into “You’re Pretty Good Looking,” just as the beginning of “Union Forever” cuts to “Baby Blue,” which in turn gives way to “Ball and Biscuit” and “Screwdriver” to close the main set. Before “Seven Nation Army,” Jack declares the Scottish crowd the best in the world, with the song again featuring the now mandatory chanting from the crowd, before the band close the show with “Boll Weevil.” Next stop, Blackpool Lights.

Stream these three new shows and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

The White Stripes: Chicago, IL, New Years Eve, 2003

An exclusive archive from The White Stripes is now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring a New Years Eve performances from Chicago, IL. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

New Years Eve 2003: A Finale With Friends

To close out the 20^th anniversary of the 2003 Elephant tour, it’s only fitting to go out big, just as the band did. For the final Third Man Thursday of 2023, here is the White Stripes New Year’s Eve concert from 2003, back at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. A special performance to finish the year, featuring a little help from some friends, and artwork from longtime Stripes-collaborator Rob Jones.

12/31/03 Chicago: Aragon Ballroom – LISTEN NOW

What to say about 2003? Over 100 days of shows played across 5 continents. In clubs, theaters, sports arenas. At festivals, on the radio, on TV, at a primary school. A music video showing a girl with a broken wrist. A music video showing a boy with a broken finger. A record that turned from Gold into Platinum (and went double platinum earlier this year). Planes, trains, and automobiles. Interviews, interviews, interviews. And still, no two performances or setlists ever alike.

Here is the final show of the year, with the White Stripes bringing the Elephant back into the room at the Aragon. With parts of this show broadcast live on CNN, the return to Chicago was a party on a grand stage to close out a grand year, shared with a global audience of millions.

For this special occasion, the band had brought along two groups of friends. The first opening act on this night was the band Blanche, who’s members shared a history with Jack going all the way back to Goober & The Peas and Two Star Tabernacle. A cover of Blanche’s song “Who’s to Say” was featured on the single for “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself”, and they would be joining the band on the upcoming January tour of the UK.

The second openers on the bill were the Flaming Lips, a group who also had a connection with the band. While the Stripes had spent 2003 unleashing Elephant on the world, the Flaming Lips were also on the road, helping Yoshimi battle those Pink Robots. It would be at a show in Detroit the year before, where the Lips were playing as both opener and backing band for Beck (just as they would at this show for the Stripes), where Jack would present frontman Wayne Coyne with a gift that would be memorialized in the song “Thank You Jack White (For The Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me)”. After Jack had injured his finger in the car accident in July, the first concert that the Stripes would have to cancel would be the T In the Park festival in Scotland. It would be the Flaming Lips who would fill in for the band, taking to the stage dressed in red and white and opening with a reworked cover of “Seven Nation Army”, featuring lyrics that included bits from the Butthole Surfers’ “Moving to Florida”, which you can just make out on the performance of the song here, with Jack sharing the verses with Coyne, who can be heard singing through a megaphone, complete with air-raid siren.

The New Year’s Eve show is a wonderful capture of lightning in the bottle for both the White Stripes and the Flaming Lips. While the Stripes and their minimalism would be on their way to the UK to immortalize the power of simplicity on film, the Lips would soon be bound for Coachella, with animal costumes, floodlights, fake blood, and a space bubble in tow.

From the very start of the Stripes performance on this New Year’s Eve, there’s an audible sense of joy, with the band no doubt refreshed after having had a month off since the end of the November leg. Perhaps not surprising that the set here leans heavily on pre-Elephant tracks, including a few callbacks to the last time they played the Aragon on 7/2, by opening with “When I Hear My Name” in place of “Black Math”, and featuring adlibs of “Aluminum” and “Cool Drink of Water Blues.” The setlist is a perfect summary to close the year, featuring a little bit from every era of the band’s history, with a song like “The Big Three Killed My Baby” brought current with an adlib commenting on the ever-present political climate of the time.

The version of “We’re Going To Be Friends” is simply beautiful, with the Flaming Lips providing gentle backup on guitar and bass, while frontman Coyne can be seen in the footage from the show giving Jack a hug mid-song, smearing fake blood on his shirt. And of course that Stripes/Lips Seven Nation Army mashup, kicking off the New Year as a shower of red, white, and black balloons were dropped from the ceiling onto the crowd. This show is a fitting celebration to close out 2003, complete with party favors, as attendees were given a small viewfinder which showed a message of “Happy New Year 2004 from the White Stripes”.

While it was the end of an incredible year, the Elephant tour wasn’t quite at the finish line just yet, with more shows to come in January. As Jack would say after “Seven Nation Army”, now officially in 2004, “Well, we can’t stop now, right?”

For a limited time, save on a year of live music streaming! Enjoy unlimited access to all the exclusive Third Man Thursday archives, Jack White shows, and more from your favorite artists.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXIV, November 17, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Goose, The White Stripes, Billy Strings and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM Streaming, see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

Thatch
Goose
11/7/23 Amsterdam, NLD
Love Sick
The White Stripes
10/27/03 Osaka, Japan
Pickin’ Up The Pieces
Billy Strings
11/6/23 Amsterdam, NLD
Missin’ Me
The String Cheese Incident
11/4/23 Austin, TX
All In
Spafford
11/14/23 Mills River, NC
Like a Buddha
Railroad Earth
10/8/23 Eureka Springs, AR

The White Stripes: Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Columbus, 2003

Two exclusive archives from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring performances from Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Columbus. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

November 2003 – Looking for a Home

Back in the US for a fourth round, the November leg would begin the journey to close out the year, and close out the tour. Kicking off with a trio of shows in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Columbus – they start the run by playing in the three states that border Michigan, as if deliberately making a point of playing everywhere but home. Detroit would have to wait until the end of the month, and even then they had already signed up for a New Year’s Eve show in Chicago. As they would look back on this leg, Meg would recall “We were like a moth right next to the flame. It’s like, do any more and you go down. We were so tired. One final lap, and then have a rest.”

Like the three shows in Scandinavia that kicked off the European tour six months earlier, these first shows of the November run are a complementary snapshot in time. Where those shows in May saw the band experimenting with the new songs and pushing the setlists and arrangements outward, by November the new songs were now long established in the set, and yet somehow the band were still able to keep the performances continuously evolving. Notice that each of the shows here opens with the same three songs (Black Math > Dead Leaves > I Think I Smell a Rat), and even with those otherwise familiar ingredients to work with, each performance is still very much a unique serving – even at this late stage in the tour. From the debut of Bob Dylan’s Outlaw Blues at Milwaukee, to an impromptu version of Sister Do You Know My Name? played as an intro to Death Letter at Indianapolis, to Jack singing into the guitar pickup on his Airline during Hello Operator at Columbus. Still finding ways to pull new rabbits out of old hats, night after night.

11/10/03 Milwaukee: Eagles Ballroom – LISTEN

Having had to reschedule this concert twice (once earlier in the year due to scheduling conflicts, and again after Jack’s car accident), they finally make it to Milwaukee. Coming so soon after the October tour of NZ/AU/JP wrapped, this show nicely consolidates many of the highlights from that run, all within the same show. Why Can’t You Be Nicer To Me? gets included within I’m Finding It Harder to be a Gentleman, and Loretta Lynn’s God Makes No Mistakes is performed here within Screwdriver, both having been debuted at Adelaide 10/15. Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine features the adlib from the Beatles’ Boys at the end – the first since Hiroshima 10/26, and the Hardest Button to Button gets the Melbourne 10/14 “brain that felt like Pea-nut Butter” line. Milwaukee also features the debut of Bob Dylan’s Outlaw Blues, which follows after a blistering version of Ball and Biscuit. Out of the handful of times they would do this cover, the version here just might be the best one. “I might look like Robert Ford, but I feel like Jesse-Fucking-James!”

Other highlights include a funny play on words during Cannon, “I saw Guns! Tanks!…..Tanks, You’re Welcome!” The Death Letter/Little Bird combo is also excellent here, and during the intro you can just make out a tease of the slide riff from Sister Do You Know My Name? The next night in Indianapolis he would perform an impromptu version of the song in this spot. Later in the song, Jack ramps up the ending of Little Bird with a fantastic adlib of “Can’t you hear me knocking Meg?!” while he taps his slide on the fretboard. Listen for the shoutout to the local crowd before Boll Weevil, a throwback to their performances in town from earlier years: “Are we at the Cactus Club? My memory’s not so good. Hi Milwaukee, I forgot to say hello to you!” And later in the song, an acknowledgement of how the band were feeling by this point in the tour, so close to home, and yet still so far away: “See it’s funny, because you all have a home, I guess. But my sister and I, no such luck. Y’all here, you got Milwaukee, Green Bay, Oconomowoc. We used to have Detroit, but that was a long, long, long time ago.”

11/11/03 Indianapolis: Egyptian Room at the Murat – LISTEN

Where Milwaukee the night before saw the band seamlessly cutting in the latest additions from the October run, the crowd at Indianapolis got treated to a longer and more experimental set. There’s an abundance of one-off and unique performances here. Shine on Harvest Moon gets an airing in Cannon, having last been performed at Los Angeles on 9/22, and Mr Cellophane makes a return to the set – the second to last performance. This Protector gets performed complete with the off-mic spoken word intro, and Folk Singer by Brendan Benson gets the first airing since the debut in Madrid on 5/25. An epic 7 minute Ball and Biscuit features Jack singing lyrics from Howlin Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning, the only known time he actually sings along to the riff, which had been debuted back at Stockholm on 5/13. Seven Nation Army gets a one-off adlib of “make the sweat drip…drip”. I Fought Piranhas here is one of the longest known versions, hitting the 6 minute mark and ending in a wail of whammy and feedback.

The biggest surprise of the night is the impromptu version of Sister Do You Know My Name?, which gets played during the intro to Death Letter. Having been hinted at the night before, and one of only two performances on the Elephant tour, the version here is unique, as the Kay guitar is in a different tuning than the one the song is normally played in. As a result, Jack ends up doing a bit of on-the-fly improvising with the vocal melody and the guitar parts. A completely inspired and unexpected surprise. Later in Death Letter he does the quick version of the Motherless Children lines, like he did at Melbourne 10/14. For a bit of comedy, listen for the sound of a local radio station being picked up by Jack’s amp after Seven Nation Army and again after The Hardest Button to Button. Continuing the theme from the night before, there is yet another reference to not knowing where “home” is during Boll Weevil, with Jack making a joke to the Indiana audience saying “We love being here in Houston Texas!”. This show also features a unique milestone, as it’s the first one where Jack closes the show by stepping on the Big Muff pedal and letting the guitar feedback ring out as the band exits the stage.

11/12/03 Columbus: PromoWest Pavilion – LISTEN

Similar to the previous night in Indianapolis, where the show ended with Jack thanking the city of Houston, he takes the joke a step further in Columbus, referring to different cities throughout the show (Boise, Des Moines, Akron). Given the band’s long history of playing in Ohio, it’s safe to say that they’re clearly glad to be back and are in good spirits, as this is an excellent performance, with energy to spare. Many of the songs get an extra dose of enthusiasm, particularly in the vocals. While they were surely looking forward to the end of the tour, and pushing back against the fatigue of touring, there’s certainly no sign of it here. Listen to the version of I Think I Smell a Rat, where Jack throws in the line “Video Games! Tattoos! Body Piercings! I think I smell a rat!” – a comment on some of the distractions of the day. He’d insert this line again at New York on 11/18. During Let’s Shake Hands he adds in the line “Well you can do what you wanna do Meg….we’ve been playing this song for 6 years! So say my name!” As if in amazement of how long they had been together and how long they had been on tour by this point.

Or listen to the must hear version of Hello Operator, where Jack sings one of the verses through the guitar pickup in his Airline. Or Little Bird, where he sings the “When I get you home” lines while toggling the pickup selector on the Kay to cut the sound in and out, mimic’ing the stutter effect with his voice. This show also features a rare outing of Now Mary, the second of only two performances on the Elephant tour (the other was at Sydney 10/10), which in turn segues into a welcome appearance of Sugar Never Tasted So Good. After the encores of Little Room, the Joss Stone version of Fell In Love With a Girl, Apple Blossom, and I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, where they’ve kept the energy they had at the beginning of the show all the way through to the end, they break the pattern of ending the show with Boll Weevil and instead close with Seven Nation Army, with the intro “Okay Akron, you’ve been very nice to us. My sister is very pleased, and I’m very happy too!”. Like the night before, the show closes with a wail feedback ringing out as the band leave the stage, the now official “ending” to each show that would follow on the tour from here.

Stream these three new shows, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

The White Stripes: Wellington and Osaka, 2003

Two exclusive archives from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring performances from Wellington, New Zealand and Osaka, Japan. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

After the success of the September US tour, the band were off to New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, repeating the journey of the “Three Island Tour” from 2000. With the excellent Melbourne, Australia show released back in March as part of Third Man Thursday, here are the closing shows from the other two “islands” to complete the trio.

Wellington may be the most relaxed show of the entire Elephant tour. There is a pacing and vibe to this show that sits in a comfortable sweet spot, with the band no doubt buzzing off of the performances the day before in Auckland, where they had performed at the Freemans Bay Primary School to a crowd of schoolchildren, and then delivered an excellent performance later that evening at the St James Theatre. There is just something to the Wellington show that makes it feel both unrushed, while yet still delivering all the right amount of energy. You can hear it in the set, which has a great flow from start to finish. From the “Everybody well in Wellington?” greeting to the audience, to the relaxed version of “Look Me Over Closely”, to a flawless “Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise”, and Jack’s introduction to “We’re Going to Be Friends”, complete with the mid-song aside “This is the important part…we don’t notice any time pass” – an almost Freudian acknowledgement of the pace of this show. Or how about the version of “You’re Pretty Good Looking”, which gets a nearly half-minute pause midway through for no apparent reason, before kicking back in with the “swing” version to finish the song off. Instead of going into “Hello Operator” per the normal pairing, they instead throw in “When I Hear My Name”, featuring a cappella lines from “The Object of My Affection”, the first known appearance since the Bowery show in 2002, and the last known time they’d perform it. Also unique at this show is that Jack stays on guitar for the last verses of “I’m Finding It Harder to be a Gentlemen”, instead of returning to the keyboards. By the next performance of the song in Adelaide on 10/15, he’ll take advantage of that section to include an updated version of “Why Can’t You Be Nicer to Me.” “Girl,You Have No Faith in Medicine” also gets a change from the typical delivery, starting with a low-key intro and gradually ramping up to the familiar frenzy. The encores further highlight the sense of balance at this show, with “Astro” and “Jack the Ripper” getting followed by another appearance of the “Joss Stone” slow version of “Fell In Love With A Girl” (that Stone album had only just been released a few weeks earlier). The soloing in “Ball and Biscuit” similarly features excellent slow blues lines right alongside the guitar hero style runs with the whammy. Closing out with “I’m going to Wellington” in “Seven Nation Army” and the line “We’re gonna be o-kay when this song is through…that is my promise to you!” in “Boll Weevil”, it’s a satisfying close to a laid-back show.

LISTEN: The White Stripes live at Town Hall in Wellington, New Zealand

On the other side of the equator, Osaka is a confident power set to close out the Japan run. While New Zealand and Australia largely went off without a hitch, Japan was not without a few challenges – likely owing to the near-constant jumping across timezones as they moved from city to city, and country to country. Fast forward a bit and you’ll find this exchange from an interview the band gave on MuchMusic TV in Toronto on 11/13/03, looking back on this leg of the tour:

Jack: We just played Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and it was…I think we had 21 airplane rides in like 2 ½ weeks or something like that. That starts to get, you know…you start to get really messed up. Because you don’t know what time it is, you don’t know when you’re supposed to be asleep and when you’re supposed to be awake, and you’re just expected to play every night, you know? It’s very difficult to keep that up, you know?

Having kicked off the Japan tour with the pair of shows in Tokyo on 10/21 and 10/22, it would be the Nagoya show on 10/23 where fatigue would catch up with the band, with that show getting cut-short due to illness. The band would quickly get back on their feet at Fukuoka 10/25 and Hiroshima 10/26, with the show in Osaka on 10/27 being the confident return-to-form to close out the tour.

For a band that never used a setlist, there’s an almost clinical precision to the setlist here. A proper kicking out of the jams, one after another. From the rush of “Let’s Shake Hands” into “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”, to that transition at the end of “I Think I Smell a Rat”, with the final chord hanging there for a second before slingshotting into “Black Math.” The set is loaded with tight run-throughs. “Love Sick”, “Death Letter” – “Grinning In Your Face”, “The Hardest Button to Button”, “We’re Going to Be Friends”, “Ball And Biscuit”. An almost “greatest hits” set for the Elephant tour right down to the closer of “Seven Nation Army” (“Boll Weevil” was skipped for the Japan tour, but would be played on the return visit in 2006).

LISTEN: The White Stripes live at Namba Hatch in Osaka, Japan

As if this wasn’t enough, what really puts Osaka into must-hear territory is that it features an ultra-rare performance of “Little Acorns”, the second of only two known performances. The Adelaide show in Australia on 10/15 would be the first, but that show was sadly not captured by RADAR. So, for “Little Acorns”, Osaka is it. And while it’s a brief version, much like the debut of lines from “There’s No Home For You Here” at Los Angeles the previous month, there’s no doubt of the power the song had in a live setting. A fitting surprise for the last night on the tour, like a bonus track on those Japan-only releases from back in the day.

While they were officially back to health by the time of the Osaka show, the relentless touring schedule would continue, almost comically so, with the band going from Japan to Brazil for a one-off show on 10/31, and then back to the US for the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans on 11/2, and then off to Scotland for the MTV Europe Awards on 11/6, before returning to the US to kickoff the next leg of the tour in Milwaukee on 11/10.

Stream these two new shows, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

The White Stripes Live at The Greek Theatre, September 13, 2003

An exclusive archive from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring a performance from 2003 at The Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. From The White Stripes’ archivist Ben Blackwell on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ release:

The return from the finger injury. While a shorter set overall (about 1 hour and 13 minutes from start to finish), there is excellent enthusiasm here, and even a few debuts as well. This is the first show to feature the “That’s what I’m gonna do” adlib in “Seven Nation Army”, the first to feature a quote from the song Evil by Howlin Wolf, and the first to feature a cover of “Man” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who would be joining the tour a few days later in Seattle on 9/16. This show also features an acapella performance of the song “I Got Stripes” by Johnny Cash, who had passed away the day before, as the lead-in to “Death Letter.” While it had only been 9 weeks since Jack’s finger was broken, the only real sign of the injury here is the abrupt aborting of “Offend In Every Way”, which itself isn’t all that unusual, as they were known to jump from one song to another all the time. While there’s no reason given for the pivot away from the song here, a week later in Las Vegas on 9/20 Jack would again abort the song, revealing the inability to play the D minor chord as the reason. This would also explain why “Jolene” (which also relies on D minor) would be absent for most of the September tour, not returning to the set until San Diego on 9/25. As the setlists would show, the September leg would be a progressive return to the stage, with each performance getting additional songs from the earlier Elephant live set added back in.

LISTEN: The White Stripes at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA, 9/13/2003

Having been off the road for 2 months, if there is any rustiness here it’s mainly heard in some of the missed lyrics throughout the set, as opposed to anything instrumental or anything in the vocals. Jack hits all the right notes here, just misses a lyric here and there and adlibs through it where needed. The pivot away from “Offend In Every Way” results in a similarly abbreviated quote from “Isis”, which stops after a few rushed/hybrid verses, including the rarely performed verse 7 (“Pyramids embedded in ice”). In the encores, Jack starts “Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise” on the keyboards, similar to the versions from Pomona/Chicago/Detroit Jun-Aug 2002, where he starts on the Rhodes and goes to the guitar midway through. Here, he does a verse, but then goes silent while he continues on the keys before finding his way back into the next verse. But while the finger may have been injured and some of the lyrics missed, his vocals and the energy are in great form here. A highlight at this show is the run starting with “Cannon”, which goes through the usual “John the Revelator” interlude and ends on the familiar last line of “Evil!” before going into an unheard riff where he debuts lines from the song Evil by Howlin Wolf. So, the word “Evil!” sets up the song “Evil.” Nice. This then segues into “Cool Drink Of Water Blues” (another Howlin’ Wolf quote) and transitions seamlessly into an excellent “Ball and Biscuit”, which features soloing played as effortlessly as any version you’d have heard pre-injury. A few songs later and that “Offend”/”Isis” attempt gets more than made up for by Jack launching into “Let’s Shake Hands”, which includes the debut of the YYYs “Man” and a unique version of “Pick a Bale of Cotton”, with Jack doing what can be described as a low-end “burp” sound into the mic as a counterpoint on the lines “Me and *burp* pick a bale of cotton”, before some nice whammy soloing to close out the song and the main set. The encores kick off with “Seven Nation Army”, featuring the first appearance of the “that’s what I’m gonna do” adlib. While the band had been off the road, the popularity of the song had of course continued to rise, with the Berkeley crowd heard going nuts in the background the moment the first note is played. While “Little Room”/”Union Forever” are a familiar duo here – “Little Room” gets a heavy delivery here and “Union” gets a clean intro – a flip-flop of the way the songs were usually paired up, with “Little Room” typically serving as the quieter set up for a bombastic entrance into “Union.” And “Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise” is a nice addition to the set, even with the missed lyrics, being the first performance since 2002. All tied up with a sincere shoutout to San Francisco as “the first city to like us” setting up “Boll Weevil” to close out the show.

A great start to the September leg, likely played short to make sure they didn’t overdo it on the first night back. Even though the finger may have still been injured, the vocals and energy were in great shape, and the band would be quick to ramp back up.

Hotel Yorba, I Think I Smell a Rat, Screwdriver, Love Sick, I Fought Piranhas, Astro, Jack the Ripper, I’m Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman, St James Infirmary, Lord Send Me An Angel, and Hello Operator would all return to the set for the next performance on 9/15 in Vancouver.

Little Bird, Let’s Build a Home, Goin’ Back to Memphis, Fell In Love With a Girl, Lafayette Blues, and Sugar Never Tasted So Good would be added at Seattle 9/16.

Wasting My Time, Look Me Over Closely, Take A Whiff On Me and Small Faces would signal the “return to normal” at Portland 9/17, along with Motherless Children at Denver 9/19, setting up the Las Vegas and Los Angeles shows.

The return of Jolene and Same Boy You’ve Always Known at San Diego on 9/25 would complete the recovery, and with a closeout show in Mesa on 9/26, they’d be off to New Zealand and Australia, where the setlists would be taken a few steps further.

Stream this new show, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

The White Stripes: Chicago and St. Paul, July 2003

Two exclusive archives from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring performances from Chicago, IL and St. Paul, MN. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

In The Bigger Rooms…

Coming off of the June run, the trio of shows in Chicago and St Paul were a true test. Big shows in big rooms. July was all about exhibition, closing out the tour by pushing into the next level up.

As the last shows on this leg of the tour, these performances represent a kind of final exams. Two nights in the 4500 seat Aragon, and the tour-closer in the 5000 seat Roy Wilkins. While they had played the big room at Masonic back in April, the Aragon and Wilkins would be played without any home field advantage. While it may seem silly to be so focused on the capacity of a venue as a metric, the reality was that these were among the biggest venues that the band played on the tour. Three bears style, clubs like the Ritz and Stubbs were now too small, arenas like Sun Dome too big, and a venue like Memorial Hall just right. In order to graduate, the band needed to demonstrate that they could go bigger.

LISTEN: The White Stripes at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, IL

Like it or not, the band’s ability to dazzle at a large scale was the albatross that some critics desperately wanted to put around their necks. While the band would prove the doubters wrong, it didn’t change the fact that it was the narrative being forced on them. Jack himself was aware of the numbers at play at these shows, as you can hear him on the recording from 7/2 note the “4500 people” in the audience. And while the press around the St Paul show marveled at the band’s ability to jump from the tiny 400 capacity First Avenue the year before to the 5000 seat Roy Wilkins, the Chicago shows came with a narrative in the other direction. It seems that the issue that some reviewers had was not that the cavernous Aragon Ballroom was too big, but that it wasn’t small enough, wishing that the band would not “stray from the garage”. With comparisons to the performances the band had given at the Empty Bottle and the Metro in years past, the Aragon shows had been set up to be a Kobayashi Maru, an unwinnable game. And yet, what was missed in those concerns was that the Aragon shows were a natural step in the trajectory that the band had already long been on. In 2000 they played the Empty Bottle three times. In 2001, they did it again, including a two night stand at the tiny bar. In 2002, they went bigger, with two nights at the larger Metro. If any city was right for the band to expand and push their limit, Chicago was it. And true to the path they were on, both nights at the Aragon had completely sold out. Like the resistance to Dylan going electric, the critics had wanted the band to be something that they no longer were – unknowns playing to small crowds. With all the focus on the venue, the critics were asking the wrong question. Instead of asking about the room, they should’ve been asking about the crowd – and whether they would be willing to make the jump. As these shows would prove, the band had no problem bringing the fans with them. You never have to leave the garage if you can turn a ballroom into one. The bigger room meant that there was a home for everybody at the shows now: old fans, new fans, and the critics – whether they liked the size of the room or not.

As for the performances, for many the only exposure to the Elephant-era live show is the legendary performance from July 2. What may be surprising is just how much of an outlier that show is. No other show on the tour is quite like it, or goes that far down that particular kind of rabbit hole. One of the only shows on the tour not to feature “Black Math”, the performance forgoes many of the familiar numbers in favor of songs like “Aluminum”, “Black Jack Davey”, “Candy Cane Children”, the debut of “The Air Near My Fingers”, and the impromptu jam that would become “Little Cream Soda.” While there is still plenty of the familiar catalog present, the overall vibe of the show is one of experimentation and even a good bit of confrontation, starting and ending with ominous wails of feedback. You’ve heard the gig. Equal parts mania, exhaustion, and inspiration. A masterstroke that this gig was released as the primary reference for the tour. While it may be one of the most rewarding and unique performances the band ever gave, it can also be one of the most challenging for a newcomer to live Stripes.

When placing the shows from 7/1 and 7/3 alongside it, the run becomes a wonderful Neapolitan trio. Unlike the run in Scandinavia, where the shows build one after the other, the shows here are each a very different flavor. Like discovering an unknown prequel and sequel to your favorite movie. While the second night in Chicago is a stream-of-conscious show played without regard for any “normal” type of setlist, night 1 is the full display of the band’s live show. If 7/2 is the band completely off-script, 7/1 is the faithful readthrough, confidently nailing every line. You get virtually every one of the “standard” songs that had been in rotation on the tour – with the lone exceptions of “I Want to Be the Boy” and “Ball and Biscuit.” Otherwise it’s all in there, from the “Black Math” opener, the “Take Whiff On Me” quote in “I Think I Smell a Rat”, “Jolene”, “Motherless Children” in “Death Letter”, the honesty of “Same Boy” and “We’re Going to Be Friends”, the “You’re Pretty Good Looking”/”Hello Operator” duo, “Screwdriver” to close the main set, and “Boll Weevil” to close the encores.

The show also rises to the setting, delivering moments of pure vaudeville. In addition to “Mr Cellophane” they also throw in a one-time addition of “We Both Reached For The Gun” from Chicago as a quick quote inside of “Screwdriver.” “Wasting My Time” also gets a unique variation, in a way that sets up the performance of “Black Jack Davey” the following night. These moments balance against the bombast on display. Listen to “The Hardest Button To Button” here, or that yell that pivots “Death Letter” into “Motherless Children”, as if bringing a stampede to a standstill. This show is a proper opening night blitz. The encore at night 1 also features a rare performance of “Hand Springs”, a deep cut shout out to those fans who no doubt had been with them at the Bottle. Even though the critics may have wished that these Chicago performances had instead taken place at a smaller venue, the first night in Chicago proves why that was never an option, delivering what is probably the most refined show of the entire tour up until this point, enthusiastic and complete.

If Chicago Night 1 was the Dr Jekyll to Night 2’s Mr Hyde, Night 3 in St Paul is the combination of the two, a set that goes back and forth between both personalities, delivering both the familiar and the one-of-a-kind moments. The Roy Wilkins Auditorium was even larger than the Aragon, and the band makes good on the narrative of being the small band that goes big, opening appropriately with “Little Room”. The surprises are there from the get-go, as “Dead Leaves” is quickly abandoned due to an out of tune guitar and Jack performs the song entirely on the keyboards for the first time since the early performance at the Magic Bag on July 30 1999. Prior to that recording circulating, no one really knew that he could do the song like that, as if revealing a super-power he hadn’t yet flexed onstage before. He goes to the organ again to open “The Union Forever”, even adding in a quote from “Razzle Dazzle.” The quiet numbers here also hit exactly as they should. Where the song “Do” had been a challenge to perform at 7/2, here it’s the right song for the room – getting almost as much applause as “Seven Nation Army” before it. The show also features the first known cover of the Beatles’ “Boys” as an impromptu outro to “Let’s Shake Hands” and a masterful medley of “Fell In Love With A Girl”, “Cannon”, and “Hypnotize”, all built around a cover of “Dirt” by the Stooges – a not-so-subtle acknowledgement of how they were likely feeling by this point in the tour. Where Chicago night 1 closed with “Boll Weevil” and night 2 closed with “Let’s Build A Home” and “Goin’ Back to Memphis”, the encores at St Paul close with both – finishing as the longest set the band performed on this leg of the tour. A fantastic exhibition in the big room to close out this leg of the tour.

LISTEN: The White Stripes at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, MN, 7/3/2003

As a wonderful form of conclusion for the tour, the ticket stub for the St Paul show came with the words “NO MOSHING OR BODYSURFING” printed on it. Like OSHA standards for a concert, as if to say be careful, there will be a lot of people at this one – with big rooms come big responsibilities. Again a validation of exactly where the band were. Like the foreshadowing use of the strobe light in the club in Raleigh at the start of this leg of the tour, the St Paul ticket stub acts a bit like a diploma at the end of it. They had officially graduated from the clubs, and had the paperwork to prove it. Welcome to the bigger rooms.

Stream these two new shows, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

The White Stripes: June 2003 Raleigh to Kansas City

Two exclusive archives from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring performances from Raleigh, NC and Kansas City, KS. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

Starting in the last week of spring and finishing in the first week of summer, these two shows capture the beginning and end of a 13 day trek, from North Carolina to Kansas. Two sets of 6 performances in a row, with a day off in the middle on June 22, and 2 shows played on the same day at Stubbs in Austin on June 25. 13 shows in 13 days.

LISTEN: The White Stripes at The Ritz in Raleigh, NC, 6/16/2003

Kicking off in Raleigh on June 16, with a return to a club they had visited 4 years earlier as a then-unknown opening act for Pavement, and concluding in Kansas City on June 28 at the Memorial Hall – the closest they would get to actually “going to Wichita” on the Elephant tour – the performances here are a true before & after. Two snapshots in time: one looking back, reflecting on their early years on the road. The other looking forward…to the bigger venues and the many dates still to come on the tour.

In as much as April was about exposure and May was about exploration, you could say that June was all about endurance.

The venues on this leg ranged from clubs, to theaters, auditoriums, and even a sports arena. While the band had no problem delivering excellent performances at large events such as Glastonbury, Roskilde, or Coachella (in fact, they had started June with a festival date in Italy to close out the European leg, and then performed at back-to-back festival appearances in California before making their way to Raleigh), finding the appropriate place to play in each city would prove to be a challenge. Not every city had a good mid-size venue. In Tampa, for instance, they had no other option but to play in the 10,000 seat Sun Dome, which had to be curtained off in order to reduce the size of the arena, with the band performing to about the same size crowd as they would at the club shows.

While Raleigh had obvious sentimental significance for the band, just like the show in Houston where they gave a shout out to Blind Willie Johnson, or Oklahoma City “land of Woody Guthrie” – in Kansas City it would be the audience that provided the acknowledgment, roaring in approval during the “Wichita” line in “Seven Nation Army”, taking Jack by surprise. Like the triumphant return to Raleigh, the Wichita reaction at Kansas City is also a true “it could only have happened here” moment on the tour.

The recordings of these two performances perfectly capture not just the sound of the band, but also the venues that they were playing in. The Ritz being the smaller venue, with the crowd upfront and present, and Memorial Hall, with the band playing in a bigger room, and the crowd further in the background. Where you can hear the reverb on Jack’s amp so clearly on the recording at Raleigh, at Kansas City it’s the sound of the room that reverberates.

The Raleigh performance is a club show through and through, a relaxed and warm nod to the band’s history. The tour-closing shows in North Carolina from 2000 and 2001 in Asheville are among the best from those years. This time around, North Carolina got the tour opener, with the band coming back to conquer on familiar ground in Raleigh. While the name of the venue had recently changed from the Ritz to the Disco Rodeo, it was still very much the same place, with Jack playfully reminding the audience about how the last time they played there in 1999 “nobody gave a damn”, before joking “Now who’s laughing?” As if further embodying that feeling of a return to an earlier time, Jack’s Fender Twin has the reverb set high at this show – like he did in the early years (listen to the sound of the springs audibly slapping back during the pulsing intro to “The Hardest Button to Button”), giving an almost throwback feel to the sound of this performance. Like a 2003 version of a 1999 club show, back when it was just one amp on stage doing all the heavy lifting. The setlist here is also about as unpredictable as many of those early shows were – stretching out in any direction they felt like going, from the cheerful tribute to North Carolina in “Lord, Send Me An Angel” early in the set, to a flawless “I Fought Piranhas” packing as much tightly-wound energy as can fit into 3 minutes, or the disarming intimacy of Bob Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country”, the first known performance since the early years – featured as a brief quote at the end of “Five String Serenade.” Even the “Take a Whiff on Me” interlude gets inserted into “The Big Three Killed My Baby”, a colliding of a debut-era song with an Elephant-era adlib. And yet, even with all of this nostalgia – this show is one of the first to feature a strobe light effect for “Seven Nation Army”. A small acknowledgement of where the band were by this point, with the bigger stage productions and larger venues to come. While they would go on to play at a few more clubs on the tour, none would hold as much significance as this one.

LISTEN: The White Stripes at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, KS, 6/28/2003

13 days later, and the relaxed and open-ended feeling so present at Raleigh has been replaced with an almost brutal directness at Kansas City. They’ve just been through a long run of shows, and oh boy can you hear it. Like a boxer having worked their way through the circuit, with only a few matches left before the championship. Still hungry, aware of what it takes to last the necessary rounds, and more than capable of delivering the knockout. While they could focus on more personal storytelling at a comfortable pace in the smaller club setting in Raleigh, in Kansas City the bigger room required bigger gestures, with a focus on keeping the energy going from end-to-end. Look no further than the 7+ minute rendition of “I Think I Smell a Rat”, featuring a medley that leads off with a cover of Lead Belly’s “Pick a Bale of Cotton”, the vocals a jarring display delivered at the top of the lungs – as if demanding that the audience can hear him all the way in the back. If Raleigh had a lightness to it, Kansas City brings the heavy. The near-shredded vocals during the breakdown in “Black Math”, or the doomy intro to “Cannon”, played almost as if mimicking Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral.” There’s an edge to many of the songs here, and plenty of surprises, including the rare performance of “Candy Cane Children” – the only live rendition captured by the Stripes to feature that excellent dark outro riff, or the final performance of “Don’t Blame Me” which feels less like a ballad from a hopeless romantic and more like a cautionary tale. Or how about that extended ending added to “Hello Operator”, turning one of their most buoyant songs into glorious sludge. And of course that one-of-a-kind performance of “Seven Nation Army”, where the Kansas crowd go ballistic the moment the Wichita line finally arrives. With so much effortless riffing and raw power on display, it’s no surprise that there is very little time spent on the keyboards here. This ain’t that kind of show. By the time they get to “Boll Weevil”, having successfully delivered a near non-stop performance, it’s a straightforward “Alright folks, I suppose it’s that time of the night…”. A reminder that each show on the tour, just like a carnival, eventually has to pack up and head to the next town. A fitting close to the run.

After this 13 day journey, the band would have a day off and head to St. Louis, where that show would be marked by near constant equipment failures. After such a long haul with no issues, St. Louis ends up being a bit like returning from a cross-country drive, and then the car breaks down the very next time you take it down the street. And even with all of those challenges, just like running through so many back to back dates in so many different settings, they still managed to make that St. Louis show a memorable performance. Endurance.

As it would turn out, the trip from North Carolina to Kansas would include the final shows that the White Stripes would ever perform in those states – as well as Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma. Louisiana would get a final visit at the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans in November, and the band would return to Georgia one last time for the Midtown Music festival in Atlanta, early on in the Get Behind Me Satan tour. They would also return to Kansas City on that tour, but it would be on the Missouri side of town – at the much larger Starlight Theatre, of course.

Stream these three new shows, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

The White Stripes: Scandinavia 2003

Three exclusive archives from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring performances from Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen during a three-night run in May of 2003. From The White Stripes’ archivist Ben Blackwell on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

Having survived the all-eyes-on-them April tour in support of the release of Elephant, the band kicked off the European leg in May with a three day journey through Scandinavia.

It didn’t get much attention at the time, but the Elephant touring cycle was actually supposed to start in March, with a secret performance at SXSW. With that show canceled after Meg broke her arm, and the album’s release pulled-in by two weeks due to online leaks, April became a tightly packed end-to-end event. Pretty much every one of the performances that month had an additional occasion to go along with it, like an insanely-curated showcase. From the release of the album on April 1st and the 5-star review in Rolling Stone, to the tour kickoff in Wolverhampton on the day Elephant went to number 1 in the UK, to the debut of the video for “Seven Nation Army” – where you can catch a glimpse of the cast on Meg’s left arm, to the radio broadcast from London – the first time that many fans would get to hear the new songs live, and then back stateside for the hometown shows in Detroit, to performing with Loretta Lynn in New York, the afternoon club show and evening radio broadcast from Boston, an unprecedented 4 night residency on Late Night with Conan O’Brien performing to an audience of millions each night, to the iconic photoshoot with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, to the one-shot-on-goal at Coachella back when the festival was a single weekend – as openers for the reunion of Iggy and the Stooges no less, and then finishing off with back-to-back nights in San Francisco “the first city to like us” where a fan would make good on that history by throwing an elephant squeeze toy onstage that Jack would keep on his keyboards throughout the rest of the Elephant tour (which you can still see in Under Blackpool Lights), and then a final stop coming back down to earth with a low-key club show in San Diego on April 30th. Just as soon as the month would come to a close, the band would head right back to England for a one-off festival slot on May 4th, Elephant would be certified Gold on May 9th, and they would be off to Scandinavia to start the trek across Europe.

To get a sense of just how unique these shows are, look no further than the way the run starts, with Jack taking to the stage at the appropriately-named Cirkus in Stockholm with lines from Arthur Brown’s “Fire”: “I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you fire!”. Hell yes.

These shows feel a lot like a residency, except instead of being 3 nights at the same venue, it’s 3 days across 3 countries. They are breaking in new ideas, debuting songs, and stretching the sets longer – culminating with the show in Copenhagen, the longest they had ever done by that point. This is the sound of the band in the Elephant workshop.

While these performances each have their own character, there is also a common thread across the three nights via the introduction of the song “Mr Cellophane” from the musical Chicago. A small addition to an already varied set, serving as a vaudeville counterpoint to the sinister blues of “Take a Whiff on Me” introduced in April. While a natural fit, there is also a bit of symbolism in the choice. A song about a man who feels invisible, performed by a band that was quite literally everywhere at the time. The performance of “Mr Cellophane” at these shows would get a different rendition each night, fitting with the feel of each show. The opening night in Stockholm gets the live debut, performed as a single verse and chorus sung with the keyboards. The second night in Oslo gets an additional verse, with the vocals getting a looser and more energetic delivery, and the third night in Copenhagen gets an unique acapella version – like the setlist that night, stretched out for maximum effect.
There is an embarrassment of riches here. In addition to the debut of “Mr Cellophane” and the first known performance of Little Richard’s “Ooh! My Soul” since the Jack White and The Bricks show in 1999, Stockholm is a powerhouse run-through of the live set, complete with a shout out to local heroes The Hives – via a quote of their song “Main Offender” during “Astro” and “Jack the Ripper.” Oslo gets the live debut of “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine” alongside brutal versions of “Death Letter” and “One More Cup of Coffee” both nearly collapsing in a fury of out of tune glory. Copenhagen brings the full “Razzle Dazzle” via a stunning 36 song set, consolidating the ideas from the previous two nights and serving as a benchmark for the shows to come.

There’s perhaps no better advertisement for these shows than the poster that originally accompanied them, featuring a circus monkey bashing away at the band’s instruments. Equal parts playful innocence and unpredictable mayhem, nicely foreshadowing the performances themselves. For as much as one could gush over the setlists and the one-of-a-kind moments here, the shows are made all that much better when you realize how loose they are. A skipped lyric here, a false start there, a guitar out of tune. And just like the monkey on that poster, look at how much fun they’re having.

Later in the year, the band would sit down for an interview with David Dye on NPR’s World Café. Seek out the full interview, and you’ll be treated to an in-studio performance of “Mr Cellophane.” You’ll also hear this quote from Jack, a guiding principle for the ages: “It’s like when you don’t wanna do something perfect, it’s like trying to be an anti-perfectionist. It’s really perfect by not trying to be perfect.”

Stockholm – May 13, 2003
From the unique opener of lines from Arthur Brown’s “Fire” to the “Stockyard, Stockhouse, Stockholm!” introduction to the audience, and the debut of “Mr Cellophane” from the musical Chicago, the enthusiasm here is off the charts. Listen to the off-mic yells from Jack when the guitar cuts out during the intro to “Seven Nation Army” before coming back in with a snarl, or the shout of “Alright Meg!” to kick off “Let’s Shake Hands,” which features “Clarabella” and a brief quote from Little Richard’s “Lucille” before segueing into “Ooh My Soul”, the only known performance by the Stripes, and the first since the Jack White and the Bricks shows in 1999. After a mic-drop in “John The Revelator” something falls onto the keyboards, holding down a note that carries over into “Ball and Biscuit”, where Jack uses the error to his advantage by tuning his Airline to pitch. Even with that technical issue, the version of “Biscuit” here is still unique, as it’s the first to feature the riff from Howling Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning”, which would also get thrown in the next night and would feature periodically throughout the rest of the band’s live career. There is also the playful “Did anybody make any mistakes today?” exchange, a nod back to shows in the early days when Jack would engage in similar dialogue with the audience. Look out for the insertion of lyrics from the Hives “Main Offender” during “Astro” and “Jack the Ripper” and the post-show shoutout to both the Hives and Sahara Hotnights. An excellent start to the tour.

Oslo – May 14, 2003
With a warm “Hello Norway! My name is Jack, and this is my big sister Meg on the drums, from Southwest Detroit, and we think you’re pretty good looking!” the surprises continue. This show gets the first live performance of “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine”, played as if it had been in the set for years. “Mr Cellophane” again gets an airing, with a second verse added. “Ball and Biscuit” again gets the quote from “Smokestack Lightning”, with a third person switch-up in the lyrics with “Jack White’s strength is ten fold!” “Hotel Yorba” also gets a unique reference to a “dirty old road in Grand Rapids Michigan!”. Meg had a cold during this run of shows, and just makes it to the last lines of “In the Cold Cold Night” before giving a polite apology “you’ll have to forgive my cold!” Adding to just how intimate this gig is, this may be the only show to end the main set with “We’re Going to Be Friends”, complete with Jack asking the crowd “Are we friends yet Norway?” before joking “How about that Meg? You thought you didn’t have any friends!”. Matching this warmth is a good bit of chaos. Listen to “Death Letter” going full self-destruct into a storm of out of tune feedback, Jack going full scream battling the Airline at the end of “One More Cup of Coffee” – making it one of the best live renditions of the song, and “Cannon” getting an insertion of “St. James Infirmary” with a fantastic extended guitar solo section before going straight into “Boll Weevil” to close out yet another excellent show.

Copenhagen – May 15, 2003
A special show to close out the run. Even the intro music is unique here, as the band take the stage to the sound of “The Wells Fargo Wagon” from The Music Man being played over the house speakers: “Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a ‘comin, now I don’t know how I could wait to see. It could be something for someone who is no relation, but it could be something special just for me…” This is the longest show that the band had ever done up until this point. We get yet another variation on “Mr Cellophane”, this time as a unique acapella rendition between “You’re Pretty Good Looking” and “Hello Operator.” Instead of “Death Letter”, there is the combination of “Stop Breaking Down” into “Little Bird.” “Look Me Over Closely” gets a one-time quote of “Razzle Dazzle” from Chicago as an opener, and this show features both “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine” and “Hypnotize” – one of the few to feature both songs in the same show, alongside covers of “Clarabella”, “Small Faces”, and an absolutely stunning rendition of “Five String Serenade” by Arthur Lee as a bookend to an excellent “Offend In Every Way.” There are songs spanning all 4 albums here, played one after another after another. By the time they get to “Boll Weevil”, Jack gives a laugh, acknowledging “This is the last verse of the last song of the night!” Unlike the previous two nights, there isn’t much between song banter here. Not much else to say here that the music doesn’t already make crystal clear. A truly inspired performance that sets the bar for the rest of the Elephant tour. An absolute must hear.

Stream these three new shows, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LVII, April 21, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Jack White, Bruce Springsteen, Goose, and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

Simple
Phish
4/17/23 Berkeley,CA
Madman From Manhattan
Jack White
2/24/23 Aspen, CO
Ball And Biscuit
Jack White
2/22/23 Brooklyn, NY
Jersey Girl
Bruce Springsteen
4/14/23 Newark, NJ
Genesis
Widespread Panic
4/16/23 Austin, TX
Draconian
Umphrey’s McGee
4/14/23 Orlando, FL
Pancakes
Goose
4/15/23 Chicago, IL

The White Stripes at the Palace in Melbourne, Australia 10/14/2003

LISTEN NOW: The White Stripes at the Palace in Melbourne, Australia 10/14/2003

Exclusive to nugs.net, this month’s Third Man Thursday release brings us The White Stripes’ October 14, 2003 performance from Melbourne. From long-time Stripes enthusiast and expert Mike:

Coming on the heels of last month’s premiere of Seven Nation Army at Wolverhampton, this show in Melbourne is the return to the city where the riff was first played, during that infamous soundcheck at the Corner Hotel. This time around, the band are upgraded from a Hotel to a Palace.

This show takes place during the underrated New Zealand-Australia leg of the Elephant tour. The natural point of comparison for this show in Melbourne is the Sydney performance at the Enmore Theatre a few days earlier on 10/10. Whereas that show captured the band out to wow the audience, the energy is at times frantic, with Jack going song to song almost recklessly. If Sydney is the getaway car barreling down the alleyway, crashing through the trashcans, Melbourne is the other side of that coin: the same car, the same driver, but why not take the long way home?

Like Sydney, this show in Melbourne is also a marathon set, clocking in at around 1hr 40min. But whereas Sydney hits most of the familiar numbers from the Elephant live repertoire, with no time to stretch out on any one song too long, this set at Melbourne is less about the inclusion of this song or that song, and more about how the songs themselves get performed just a little bit different. Throughout the set, there are many unique change-ups and extra doses of improvisation here, making for an excellent and relaxed performance

Many of the surprises here are subtle. Listen as Jack moves to the keyboards for the first verse of Dead Leaves, or how I Want To Be the Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart gets an extended outro in place of the final verse. Other surprises are more obvious, such as Death Letter getting stretched out to over 10 minutes, including a unique rapid-fire delivery of Motherless Children and adlibs at the end of the song proclaiming “Your mother was a mother now!”, before wrapping with a quote from Little Bird. Cannon gets a unique whispered vocal delivery for the opening verses, before switching out the John The Revelator section with improvised lines inviting the audience to “come into my home” for “something you ain’t never had before”. The fourth wall gets broken again during Look Me Over Closely, with the line “every girl in this room, I’m singing this one to you” before ending the song with a saturated burst on the guitar. The Hardest Button to Button also gets an extended intro and an adlib about a brain that “felt like Pea-nut butter!”. The same songs already played many times on the tour, done just a little different here.

And then there’s the truly unique moments, which includes the where-the-hell-did-that-come-from performance of Caravan by Duke Ellington. Broken Bricks also gets the first known performance since 2002, with yet more of those whispered vocals and a “slow version” treatment, before setting up an excellent Small Faces and yet another one-time-only cover, this time Love Me by Elvis Presley – complete with adlibbed Buddy Holly style vocals. So yeah, not your typical Elephant show. Other nuggets include Jack playing some lines from the Peter Gunn Theme during Jack the Ripper, the audience singing the verses during I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, and the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quote from Wichita Lineman during Seven Nation Army, before closing out with Boll Weevil to bring this one home.

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Setlist

Black Math
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
I Think I Smell A Rat / Take A Whiff On Me
Jolene
Hotel Yorba
In The Cold, Cold Night
Wasting My Time
St. James Infirmary
I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart
Death Letter
Cannon
Look Me Over Closely
The Hardest Button to Button
Caravan
Fell In Love With a Girl
You’re Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)
Hello Operator
Lord, Send Me An Angel
Broken Bricks
Small Faces
Love Me
We’re Going To Be Friends
Apple Blossom
Astro
Jack the Ripper
Ball And Biscuit

Encore

Seven Nation Army
I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XLIX, February 24, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Billy Strings, Twiddle, Bruce Springsteen, Widespread Panic, and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

Meet Me at the Creek
Billy Strings
2/17/23 Atlantic City, NJ
15 Steps
Billy Strings
2/17/23 Atlantic City, NJ
Meet Me at the Creek
Billy Strings
2/17/23 Atlantic City, NJ
Apples
Twiddle
2/17/23 Flagstaff, AZ
Cadillac Ranch
Bruce Springsteen
2/16/23 Austin, TX
Candyman
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros (w/ Mikaela Davis)
2/10/23 Port Chester, NY
Jesus Just Left Chicago
Jack White
12/8/22 Chicago, IL
Ball And Biscuit
Jack White
12/8/22 Chicago, IL
Seven Nation Army
The White Stripes
4/7/03 Wolverhampton, UK
Interior People
Eggy
1/28/23 Frisco, CO
Driving Song
Widespread Panic
2/11/23 Durham, NC
Tall Boy
Widespread Panic
2/11/23 Durham, NC
Driving Song
Widespread Panic
2/11/23 Durham, NC

The White Stripes at Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, UK 4/7/2003

LISTEN NOW: The White Stripes at Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, UK 4/7/2003

Exclusive to nugs.net, this month’s Third Man Thursday release brings us The White Stripes April 7, 2003 performance from Wolverhampton. From archivist Ben Blackwell:

Twenty years ago, give or take a couple of weeks, the White Stripes purchased a Random Access Digital Audio Recorder. RADAR for short. It cost $8000. When recently asked about the impetus behind the move, long-time Stripes manager Ian Montone said…

“Many artists I respected – musically and from a business standpoint – always recorded their shows. Frank Zappa specifically. We wanted to implement something similar given we already owned our studio master recordings. So it made sense to record and own everything the band (and Jack) did moving forward. Live shows included. Because every show was different. There was no setlist. Everything was special. We wanted to capture that for posterity’s sake – hence the RADAR.”

In terms of the archival footprint of the White Stripes, the importance of this decision cannot be overstated. Previously, sanctioned live recordings were largely limited to whenever I was there AND the club had a cassette deck wired to the soundboard. With the end result being a static two-channel board recording subject to the whims and preferences of a house sound engineer’s real-time mixing, it left a lot to be desired.

For example…my obligations as a mediocre Detroit college journalism student with a scholarship meant that for the entirety of 2002 (a year the Stripes played nearly 100 shows) I was present for a mere seven performances, two of which were purely coincidental as my band the Dirtbombs were slotted as the warm-up act.

Thus, the number of proprietary live recordings from 2002 in the archive? Shit, barely any. I count one, give or take one.

But come 2003 the White Stripes would have the raw masters of their on-stage inputs digitally preserved. This gave the band the ability, after-the-fact, to have whomever they desired to properly and precisely mix every live show they performed, regardless of whether or not I was there to slide the sound guy a tape that night. This was $8000 well-spent.

Thank god for RADAR.

The April 7th, 2003 gig in Wolverhampton was the first show the White Stripes recorded with this digital system. More importantly, this show is the kick-off to the Elephant world tour, approximately 14 months of whirlwind travel, Whirlwind Heat, sold out shows, not sold out ethics, finger breakings, Grammy takings, global gallivanting and “oh oh oh oh oh ohhhh oh” chanting.

The performance, shockingly, has not been heard in ANY form since the amps powered down that evening two decades ago. I guess no one in Wolverhampton was doing surreptitious audience recordings at the time. Photos of the gig? I found none. Concert poster? I’ve never seen one. Please, prove me wrong. I welcome it. Contemporaneous accounts of the evening? A dumb brief write-up from the NME, one slightly more informative from the Independent and that’s it.

As Jack humbly tells the crowd that Elephant hit number 1 on the charts this day…the gig…you’d think there’d be more proof that it really existed. Things here feel big. They seem important. A chance whiff of greatness. The weight of it all is palpable on the recording.

So the wait to hear this show is most definitely worth it. The first-ever public outing of a clutch of songs off Elephant is the definition of historic.

The fact that Meg switches to her snare hits late on the first verse of “Seven Nation Army”? I LOVE it. Perhaps the only time ever she didn’t 100% nail that song. Jack’s nerves evident on “In The Cold, Cold Night”? Endearing. The premature ending of “The Hardest Button To Button”? A combo of “wow” and “holy shit” said in wonderment.

These are by no means the best versions of ANY of these songs. But they are precious for what they presage…the eventual enshrinement of said tunes in the bombastic canon of a band well on its way to their peak form.

Beyond that…the first time ever covering Public Nuisance’s “Small Faces.” What a moment! And the extra special treat of what we’ve titled here “Talking Pillow By My Side Blues.” An improvised song done in the “talking blues” style pioneered by Chris Bouchillon, appropriated by Woody Guthrie and yet further popularized by Bob Dylan, “Pillow” is one of the more realized extemporaneous songs to emerge from a White Stripes live show of any era. Which is fortunate to have been captured here, as it never shows up again, anywhere, ever.

Thank god for RADAR.

Though I must stress, the method was not perfect. As The White Stripes front of house engineer Matthew Kettle would say “Despite being the best thing we could get at the time, the RADAR was occasionally unreliable, and as we weren’t carrying a sound desk everywhere at that point, not every show was recorded successfully.”

With that in mind, there’s a handful of songs that failed to be recorded in Wolverhampton. “Dead Leaves” and “Black Math” and “I Think I Smell A Rat” seem to be songs from the top of the set lost to the ether on this night. Which isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things, considering there’s an entire WEEK where Kettle’s best efforts were thwarted by the finicky digital interface and thus, we’re left only with our imagination and collective recollection trying to discern what happened at half dozen shows in June of 2003.

Otherwise the RADAR material was immediately put to use…the accompanying audio to “Black Math” live vid from the Masonic Temple, the Berlin soundcheck b-side recording of “St. Ides of March” and the promo-only triple LP Live In Las Vegas are all proper public-facing mobilizations of these recordings. Third Man didn’t even attempt to crack these suckers open for another ten years until prepping the Nine Miles From The White City live LP included in Vault Package 16 from 2013.

At that point, upon handing mix engineer Vance Powell the necessary drives, he audibly winced.

“What?” I asked him, perplexed and, let’s face it, ignorant.

“These drives have moving parts. Good luck getting anything off of them,” Vance replied.

To which point I said “You gotta be fucking kidding me.”

“No, I’m not,” he said. “These things are ten years old.”

I learned a very crucial lesson at that moment…that any digital format is only reliable for a couple years before it’s usurped by something more streamlined and less cumbersome – OR – it just stops working. The need to constantly update and re-archive digital files is downright maddening. There is no long-term, futureproof, failsafe digital carrier. Ever. It would be another five years before all drives were properly transferred to a relatively stable LTO format. And even then, not without RADAR drive “G” requiring a $1761.60 “clean room” recovery to save seven shows that would have otherwise just disappeared.

It sounds comical now, but wearing my “businessman” hat I broke out the calculator to amortize the proposal…deciding with an almost embarrassingly “duh” quickness that $251 per show was a reasonable enough fee to reclaim those ephemeral moments. Because there’s spirit in all these recordings. The unforeseen nostalgia of memories yet to be uncovered. Instances where the power of an assemblage of strangers in a room together can divine a psychically shared experience. Time that mattered to someone. Moments could now last forever,

One of those moments, cast off with barely any consideration, a seconds-long thought formulated into action in a more simple manner, appeared when Jack White signed the venue guest book after the show.

“Thanks Civic, you made my day and I shan’t forget it.”

And because of a wise $8000 investment made nearly a generation ago, you won’t either.

Thank god for RADAR.

Start listening today with a free trial.

Setlist

Jolene
Seven Nation Army
In The Cold, Cold Night
You’re Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)
Hello Operator
Good To Me
The Hardest Button to Button
Hotel Yorba
Small Faces
Talkin’ Pillow By My Side Blues
We’re Going To Be Friends
Apple Blossom
Ball And Biscuit
I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart
Death Letter / Motherless Children Have A Hard Time

Encore

Let’s Build A Home
Goin’ Back To Memphis
The Union Forever
Boll Weevil

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XLVI, February 3, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Umphrey’s McGee, Greensky Bluegrass featuring Daniel Donato, Railroad Earth, String Cheese Incident, Spafford featuring Aron Magner, and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

Slacker
Umphrey’s McGee
1/29/23 Cleveland, OH
Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More
Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Daniel Donato)
1/28/23 Washington, DC
Rambler’s Anthem
Yonder Mountain String Band
1/28/23 Berkeley, CA
In the Eyes of Thieves
Spafford (w/ Aron Magner)
1/27/23 Ardmore, PA
The Jupiter and the 119
Railroad Earth
1/28/23 Charlottesville, VA
The Butterfly and The Tree
Railroad Earth
1/28/23 Charlottesville, VA
Steady, As She Goes
Jack White
1/14/23 Los Angeles, CA
Best Feeling
The String Cheese Incident
1/22/23 Runaway Bay, JM
Exodus
The String Cheese Incident
1/22/23 Runaway Bay, JM
Best Feeling
The String Cheese Incident
1/22/23 Runaway Bay, JM

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XL, December 9, 2022

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Wilco, Leftover Salmon with Lindsay Lou, Billy Strings, Eggy and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash in the mobile app.

I’m The Man Who Loves You
Wilco
6/21/03 Pittsburgh, PA
My Oh My
Eggy
12/1/22 Denver, CO
Sailin’ Shoes
Leftover Salmon (w/ Lindsay Lou)
11/26/22 Boulder, CO
Southern Flavor
Billy Strings
12/3/22 Berlin, DEU
Brain Damage
Billy Strings
12/3/22 Berlin, DEU
The Same Boy You’ve Always Known
Jack White
11/12/22 Bangkok, TH
Why Can’t We Be Friends?
Twiddle
11/26/22 Port Chester, NY
Metropolis
Octave Cat
12/3/22 Philadelphia, PA
Lowdown
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong
12/2/22 Charlottesville, VA
You Don’t Love Me
The Allman Brothers Band
1/17/71 Pittsburgh, PA

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XXXIV, October 28, 2022

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Pearl Jam, Eggy, Spafford, Gov’t Mule with John Popper and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash in the mobile app.

Superblood Wolfmoon
Pearl Jam
9/20/22 Oklahoma City, OK
That Black Bat Licorice
Jack White
9/30/22 Tucson, AZ
Born On The Wrong Planet
The String Cheese Incident
10/31/96 Charlotte, NC
Those Shoes
Spafford
10/25/22 Bend, OR
Hunger Strike / Dear Mr. Fantasy / Hunger Strike
Gov’t Mule (w/ John Popper)
10/22/22 Ridgeland, MS
Candyman
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
10/21/22 Eugene, OR
Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys
Steve Kimock and Friends
10/6/22 Charlotte, NC
All Wheels Turnin’
Eggy
10/15/22 Syracuse, NY
Bear’s Gone Fishin’
Widespread Panic
10/22/22 Milwaukee, WI

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XXXII, October 14, 2022

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Eggy, Goose featuring Big Boi from OutKast, Billy Strings, Jack White and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash in the mobile app.

BubaGum
Eggy
10/1/22 Pembroke, MA
So Fresh, So Clean
Goose (w/ Big Boi – Outkast)
10/8/22 Austin, TX
Freeborn Man
Billy Strings
10/6/22 Austin, TX
I Told Them All About You
Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Mollie Tuttle)
10/9/22 Portland, ME
Señor
Gov’t Mule (w/ The Dirty Knobs)
10/11/22 Durham, NC
The Same Boy You’ve Always Known
Jack White
9/29/22 Sante Fe, NM
Crown Of Thorns
Pearl Jam
9/11/22 New York, NY
Anorexia
Zero
7/30/22 Eugene, OR
Everything’s Right
Trey Anastasio
10/8/22 Berkeley,CA
Turbulence & The Night Rays
Goose
10/11/22 Kansas City, MO

Weekly Live Stash, Vol. XXXI, October 7, 2022

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Widespread Panic, Goose, Steve Kimock and Friends, Jack White and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash in the mobile app.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Widespread Panic (w/ Chuck Leavell)
10/1/22 Memphis, TN
Tumble
Goose
10/1/22 Atlanta, GA
I’ve Got You Surrounded (With My Love)
Jack White
9/17/22 Chattanooga, TN
Away From The Mire
Billy Strings
9/30/22 Stanford, CA
Better Git It In Your Soul
Steve Kimock and Friends
9/23/22 Kent, OH
Terrapin Station Suite
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
9/30/22 Waterbury, CT
Ghosts of the Forest
Trey Anastasio
9/30/22 Riverside,CA

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XXIX, September 23, 2022

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Billy Strings, Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Holly Bowling), Jack White, Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash in the mobile app.

Turmoil and Tinfoil
Billy Strings
9/18/22 Saratoga Springs, NY
Living Over
Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Holly Bowling)
9/17/22 Morrison, CO
Waves
BIG Something (w/ Kanika Moore – Doom Flamingo)
8/5/22 Martinsville, VA
Hungry Like The Wolf
Eggy
9/10/22 Oak Bluffs, MA
Walkin’ (For Your Love)
Widespread Panic
9/17/22 Oxon Hill, MD
Come And Go Blues
Gov’t Mule
9/20/22 Oklahoma City, OK
Seven Nation Army
Jack White
9/15/22 Louisville, KY
Jellyfish
The String Cheese Incident
9/17/22 Santa Cruz, CA

Edmonton 2007 Contains The Most Impressive Ten Song Run The White Stripes Ever Played

LISTEN NOW: Shaw Conference Center, Edmonton, AB – June 30, 2007

Exclusive to nugs.net, this month’s Third Man Thursday release brings us The White Stripes June 30, 2007 performance from Edmonton. From archivist Ben Blackwell:

Another entry from the ’07 Icky Thump tour, the middle of this set features a mind-bending run of short, quick song teases all in a row (“I Think I Smell A Rat” to “Cannon” to “Wasting My Time” to “Screwdriver”) which lands directly on top of a stellar “The Union Forever.” From there, the combo of “Cannon / John The Revelator” melts effortlessly into “Little Room” which jumpstarts immediately into a frenetic “Hotel Yorba,” all followed up with a take on “I’m Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman” that turns on a dime when Jack substitutes the lyrics to “Now Mary” while still playing the tune to “Gentlemen.” Which then morphs into a unique “The Denial Twist.” All that to say, for my money this is the most impressive ten song run I ever saw the White Stripes do.

Start listening today with a free trial.

Setlist

Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground
Icky Thump
When I Hear My Name
I’m Slowly Turning Into You
Effect And Cause
I Think I Smell A Rat (tease)
Cannon (tease)
Wasting My Time (tease)
Screwdriver (tease)
The Union Forever
Cannon / John The Revelator
Little Room
Hotel Yorba
I’m Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman / Now Mary (medley)
The Denial Twist
Catch Hell Blues
A Martyr For My Love For You
In The Cold, Cold Night
Black Math
Passive Manipulation
We’re Going To Be Friends
You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)

Encore
Astro
Jack The Ripper
The Big Three Killed My Baby
Little Ghost
The Same Boy You’ve Always Known
Jolene
Ball And Biscuit
Seven Nation Army
Boll Weevil

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XXIV, August 19, 2022

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring soundboard recordings from Widespread Panic, Jack White’s European tour, Greensky Bluegrass and more.

Bird Song
Widespread Panic
8/13/22 Atlanta, GA
A Tip From You To Me
Jack White
7/20/22 Paris, France
All Along The Way
Jack White
7/20/22 Paris, France
Atlas Dogs
Goose
8/13/22 Columbia, MD
Chest Fever
Eggy
8/5/22 Woodstock, NY
Beautifully Broken / Breakdown / Beautifully Broken
Gov’t Mule
8/13/22 New Haven, CT
Dancing in the Dark
Greensky Bluegrass
8/13/22 Seaside Heights, NJ
Atlantic City
Greensky Bluegrass
8/13/22 Seaside Heights, NJ
Fluffhead
Phish
8/13/22 East Troy, WI

Chasing Ghosts With The White Stripes At Sloss Furnaces

LISTEN NOW: Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, AL – July 30, 2007

By Ben Blackwell

The fact that the word “penultimate” exists exclusively as an adjective for next-to-last situations feels almost egregious. I mean, did we really need an eleven letter word to describe this scenario when a three-word combination totaling ten letters does the job just perfectly?

Because let’s face it…second-to-last things are kinda just whatever. All the penumbra and history and tall tales sprout effortlessly from every last whisper about the LAST of something, the finality, the never-again crushing darkness of an abyss of nothingness for the rest of eternity.

So for me to roll in and tell you just how good the White Stripes were in their penultimate live show…I understand the urge to call bullshit. But honestly, truthfully, with all personal bias removed from shading of opinion here…this show is phenomenal.

Visits to an Original House of Pancakes, a record store and some antique shops all replay as relatively ordinary for daytime activities. If anything, my memory of the day sticks out as being oppressively hot. With afternoon highs in the 90s, temps at Sloss Furnaces – the supposedly haunted turn-of-the-century pig iron producing blast furnace turned concert venue – would hover into the 80s well into the Stripes performance that night. Factor in the crush of 2400 bodies crammed into the rudimentary shed-like structure with unforgiving open air walls and my recall of the event is overwhelmingly punctuated by the feel, smell and general annoyance of sweat.

Add in the decrepit, rusted, tetanus-y surroundings of the rest of the campus and the knowledge that the number of workers who died there was rumored to be in the hundreds, their falling or being pushed into the red hot fires of the furnaces only to be instantly incinerated and the unshakable pall that casts on a spot even some five decades after the last flames there were extinguished…needless to say it didn’t feel like an ordinary show by any means.

Opener Dan Sartain would play in front of the biggest hometown crowd of his career and the highlight for me (playing drums for him on this leg) was his inquiry to the crowd “So…how many genuine Alabama rednecks we got here tonight?” After a strong response from the crowd, Dan replied “Well, you made my life a living hell for 26 years. Thank you.”

Just…perfect in every way.

The show kicks off with “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” and finds Jack taking liberties (for the better) in a song where he usually did not. The particularly gnarly first note of feedback curves into some choice guitar syncopations. As the most-frequent set opener across the band’s career, it feels odd that this would be the last time the Stripes ever started a show with “Dead Leaves” as their final gig would begin with a cover “Stop Breaking Down.”

“Icky Thump” rolls into the fray wildly. To hear the assembled crowd, without prompting, perfectly nail the patter of twelve “la’s” sung in rapid succession at the end of the second verse, all mere weeks after the song’s release…it is a great reminder as to how WIDE this record reached so quickly upon deployment.

Leading into “When I Hear My Name” Jack, particularly chatty this evening, says “Meg and I knew we was Alabama bound!” and despite any hammy undertones, it ultimately comes off as sincere and heartfelt. Leading out from there, “Hotel Yorba” hits as particularly vivacious, Meg’s accompanying vocals both vivid and spot-on.

Jack’s unusual beginning to “The Denial Twist” and the improvised divergent lyrics in the second verse, which seem to say “It’s the way you rock and roll!” leave the Stripes’ final performance of this song as striking.

While the extended, elegiac intro to “Death Letter” stands strongly as a haunting slice of slide guitar, Jack’s improvised lyrics on the third verse delight. Similar to his moves earlier in “Dead Leaves”, taking a specific part of a song that, to my memory, was seldom if ever switched up, and reworking it on the spot, it all feels significant. Especially in light of the fact that the song would essentially run out of its evolutionary runway in another 24 hours. So for him to sing…

It looked like ten thousand

Women around my front porch

Didn’t know if I’d listen to ‘em

Or keep on lookin’ north

I’m just reminded of the fact that no song should ever be considered complete or finished or beyond reinterpretation.

Acolytes of St. Francis of Assisi may be surprised to catch Jack’s in-the-moment name drop of Brother Sun, Sister Moon in the midst of an extended rant toward the end of “Do.” Though it may bear repeating that “Little Bird” and its “I wanna preach to birds” lyric is explicitly inspired by the 13th century saint, it should require no leap of faith to imagine the 1972 Franco Zeffirreli film depicting the life and times of Francis being viewed by Jack as a prepubescent altar boy. Eschewing his wealthy upbringing for a life of piety and monasticism, Francis would become patron saint of Italy, the first documented stigmatic and the creator of the first live nativity scene. If there’s a Catholic Hall of Fame, St. Francis of Assisi is definitely a first-ballot shoe-in.

Nuggets like Jack’s borderline goofy drunk introduction of Meg for “In The Cold, Cold Night” with “Miss Meg White takes center stage!” belies a truly stellar performance while brief, blink-and-you-missed-it riff inversions on both “Astro” and “Little Cream Soda” are delicious little surprises to revel in. And I’ll be damned if the organ-driven take on “I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart” is a welcome reminder that every last live version of this song is worth listening to. It never fails disappoints, it always satisfies.

But the juiciest plum in this set is the unexpected, abrupt abandonment of “Seven Nation Army” a mere ninety seconds into the song. When Jack says “I don’t know if we should play this song in America anymore…I guess it doesn’t translate well…lost something in the translation” he says so without knowing it’d be the last time that he and Meg ever played the song together.

I remember this happening that night, but at the time I never mentioned it or thought to bring it up.

But 15 years later I had to.

So in an email with the subject line “dumb white stripes question” I reached out to Jack for clarity on the situation. His response…

oh i think i was just joking because it had become such a soccer chant at the time and that europeans loved it “more” than americans for a minute there

and they weren’t singing any english lyrics just saying “po po po po” in Italy, so i was joking that americans didn’t understand the “foreign language” of “po po po po po po po”

That reads nicely.

But I cannot help being reminded that in 2007 George W. Bush was still in office and folks were still wildly pissed about his mere existence AND the ongoing overseas US military boondoggles. That year would see a total of 904 American armed forces casualties in Iraq alone, the single highest yearly total in the entirety of said occupation.

So in Alabama, I dunno…a bunch of self-identifying, sweat-soaked rednecks chanting along…it had just the faintest twinge of jingoistic misappropriation originating from the crowd…that basso ostinato chopping along with the sinister Dorian mode overtone. It sounds ominous. “Army” is in the title. I mean, it’s not a stretch.

At the time I remember just having half the half-second thought along these confused political lines and then literally have not thought about it since. The only contemporaneous review I can find of the show, written by Andy Smith, attributes the scuttled “Seven Nation Army” as an effort to prevent “the righteous and violent rigor of the lyrics (to) be misinterpreted as condoning an unrighteous war.”

So even if we do take Jack at his word here (which I think we should), what he says his intention was, it’s worth noting that the perceived notion in the air that night, at least to some, was of an entirely different tone. These are the shortcomings of interpretation. They will never rectify themselves.

So for Jack to switch the opening “Ball and Biscuit” lyrics to be…

Yes I am the Third Man, woman

But I am also the seventh son

…to me it reads as almost stentorian “LET ME SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU”-level of painting a picture just perfectly clear in light of the supposed confusion or misinterpretation of anything earlier in the set. With gusto.

Yet the impromptu lyrics on “300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues” are deadly…

There’s all kinds of emotions that a phone call ain’t gonna fix

You took me to the brink woman, took me everywhere I didn’t want to go but I went anyway I never want you to question where I was headed, yes that’s where my head is nowadays

The complexity and grasp of human condition displayed in an off-the-top-of-the-head exclamation, deftly cramming all those syllables into precise meter and landing on the rhyming couplet, all while giving off the impression that the severity and pathos contained therein surely must’ve been labored over intensely for hours, days, weeks even…well, isn’t that just the way to knock us all over?

Ending with “Boll Weevil” just a short trip up I-65 from the actual boll weevil monument in Enterprise, Alabama, and some on-mic praise of Sartain is a perfect way to put that specific, local, “we know exactly where we are” stamp on the entire evening. When Jack implores the crowd to not go looking for any ghosts on the property after the show, you have half a mind to respect those wishes.

We in the touring party would not respect those wishes. After the show, a bunch of us (including Meg, but not Jack) climbed the stairs, single-file, to a precarious perch overlooking the vast, murky stretches of the complex. From above the entirely insufficient artificial light dappled the tiniest spots and failed to make a dent in the existentially overpowering void.

Even more dread-inducing was the spectre of a pitch-black decommissioned railroad tunnel. From entry to exit, the path we were led to couldn’t have been more than 200 yards at most. But I do not exaggerate when I say there was a complete absence of any outside illumination in this stretch. Pure, unadulterated emptiness. Cannot see your own hand in front of your face insanity. The shit that so many horror film plots are predicated on and has kept the night light business booming since the passing of the torch from candle to light bulb.

We got our hands on a single, meager flashlight, yet between the 8 of us (or so) that were on the endeavor…it felt wildy inadequate to the point of palpable, impending fear.

But there’s a funny little thing that happened within this little group of friends upon venturing into the ghastly, haunted space. We were all still buzzy from the after effects of such a stunning live concert in such unconventional environs. Simply put…we laughed our fucking asses off. Hysterically. The entire time. What took us maybe five minutes to traverse passed in seemingly five seconds. No one seemed like they could even be bothered with being scared. In the face of the uncertain, of the overwhelming chasm…one light and each other was all we needed to lead the way. To illuminate. To get us to the desired destination.

In the end, we’re all just chasing ghosts, looking for something to get us through.

Start listening today with a free trial.

Setlist
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
I Think I Smell a Rat
Icky Thump
When I Hear My Name
Hotel Yorba
The Denial Twist
Death Letter
Do
I’m Slowly Turning Into You
In The Cold, Cold Night
I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart
Seven Nation Army
Astro
Jack the Ripper
Encore Gap

Encore
Little Cream Soda
A Martyr For My Love For You
One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
We’re Going To Be Friends
I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself
Ball and Biscuit / Cool Drink of Water Blues
Boll Weevil

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XIX, July 15, 2022

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring soundboard recordings including Pearl Jam covering Pink Floyd, Metallica in Madrid, and more from summer 2022 festivals and tours.

Chalk Dust Torture
Greensky Bluegrass
7/9/22 Snowshoe, WV
Comfortably Numb
Pearl Jam
6/18/22 Landgraaf, NLD
Street Fighting Man
Pearl Jam
6/18/22 Landgraaf, NLD
Blues for Allah Space>Cumberland Blues
Dead and Company
7/10/22 Philadelphia, PA
About To Rage
Gov’t Mule
7/11/22 Tuttlingen, DEU
Hotel Yorba
Jack White
7/1/22 Amsterdam, NLD
I Don’t Know What I Want
Umphrey’s McGee
7/9/22 Marshfield, MA
Master Of Puppets
Metallica
7/6/22 Madrid, ESP

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XVIII, July 8, 2022

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring soundboard recordings from Trey Anastasio’s Billy Strings sit-in and Peach Fest set, Jack White in Hammersmith, and more from summer 2022 festivals and tours.

Oye Como Va
Santana
6/28/22 West Valley City, UT
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Dead and Company
7/1/22 Bethel, NY
Gotta Jibboo
Billy Strings (w/ Trey Anastasio)
6/29/22 New York, NY
Roll Like A River
Trey Anastasio Band
7/2/22 Peach Festival
Hot Tea
Goose
6/30/22 Quincy, CA
Burn Them
Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Molly Tuttle on guitar and Bronwyn Keith-Heinz, fiddle)
7/2/22 Quincy, CA
Ball And Biscuit
Jack White
6/28/22 London, GB
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
Kitchen Dwellers (w/ Daniel Donato)
7/1/22 Scranton, PA

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XVII, July 1, 2022

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring soundboard recordings from Trey Anastasio’s Goose sit-in, Panic at Red Rocks, Dead & Company at Wrigley Field, and more from summer 2022 festivals and tours.

Arcadia
Goose (w/ Trey Anastasio)
6/25/22 New York, NY
Let’s Go Outside
The String Cheese Incident
6/24/22 Rothbury, MI
Windshield
Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Holly Bowling)
6/25/22 New York, NY
Stranger In A Strange Land
Widespread Panic
6/26/22 Morrison, CO
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Widespread Panic
6/26/22 Morrison, CO
Stranger In A Strange Land
Widespread Panic
6/26/22 Morrison, CO
Hide And Seek
Billy Strings
6/18/22 Manchester, TN
Love Interruption
Jack White
6/12/22 Lincoln, NE
Truckin’
Dead and Company
6/24/22 Chicago, IL

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XIV, June 10, 2022

Listen to “The Weekly Live Stash” with nugs.net founder Brad Serling every Friday at 5 pm ET on nugs.net radio, SiriusXM 716.

The Howling
Phish
6/4/22 Noblesville, IN
Plane Crash
moe.
5/29/22 Chilicothe, IL
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
Jack White
5/31/22 Los Angeles, CA
Time
Greensky Bluegrass
6/4/22 Caledonia, MI
Breathe Reprise
Greensky Bluegrass
6/4/22 Caledonia, MI
Timebomb
BIG Something
6/4/22 Oak Hill, WV
W.M.A.
Pearl Jam
5/13/22 Oakland, CA
Tumble
Goose
6/6/22 Essex Junction, VT
Partyin’ Peeps
Umphrey’s McGee
6/5/22 St. Augustine, FL

Live Music Festivals This Summer You Should Not Miss

Welcome back to every live music lover’s favorite time of year: it’s summer festival season. It’s time to pack up the camping gear, load up the car with friends and family and heed the melodious call of live summer music.

The 2022 summer music festival season marks the triumphant return of many of the music festivals we all missed out on during the worst of the pandemic. There is nothing quite like the sense of community inherent in enjoying great live music as a collective. There are memories to be made, people to meet, and most importantly, great music to enjoy. The music, the sunshine, the food…it all adds up to a fantastic time. If you’re a music fan, there’s no better way to spend your time than at one of these unique summer music festivals in 2022.

For the Jamband Lover: The Peach Music Festival

The Peach Music Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary with a much-anticipated return from its two-year hiatus! This summer music festival is a good choice for the festival attendee who wants to enjoy a stellar line-up of the best improvisational guitar music. The Allman Brothers founded the Peach Music Festival in 2012. It features a heavy-hitting lineup, a camper-friendly atmosphere, and a fantastic community ambiance amongst festival-goers.

When and where: The Festival will be from June 30 through July 3 at the Montage Mountain Ski Resort in Scranton, PA.

Who’s Playing: Billy Strings, Trey Anastasio, The Black Crowes, Goose, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Keller Williams, The Revivalists, Doom Flamingo, The Nth Power, Eggy, Consider The Source, Yam Yam, Maggie Rose, TAUK, Daniel Donato, and more.

Learn more about The Peach Music Festival.

For the Entire Family: Hog Farm Hideaway

Hog Farm Hideaway is making its long-awaited debut at the Black Oak Ranch during the 2022 summer music festival season. Festival-goers will enjoy an intimate setting for the summer festival and a beautiful backdrop of sprawling meadows and majestic oak woodlands. The Black Oak Ranch is home to Hog Farm, one of the oldest communes in the country. They have a long history of involvement in music festivals, most notable among them being Woodstock in 1969. Hog Farm Hideaway is named in their honor and is billed as a musical treat for the entire family. The lineup is a fun mash-up of different styles of jam. The festival will feature an area for children, a healing sanctuary, an activist alley, and visual arts center. Hog Farm Hideaway is an excellent choice for festival-goers who are hoping to enjoy music and community in a family-friendly environment.

When and where: Hog Farm Hideaway will take place from June 10 through June 12 at the Iconic Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, CA.

LIVESTREAM: Get single or three-night passes to watch The String Cheese Incident live at Hog Farm Hideaway.

Who’s playing: The String Cheese Incident, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Galactic, The Infamous String Dusters, Holly Bowling, and many more.

For The EDM Enthusiast: Electric Forest

If you’re looking to experience something transcendent, then look no further. Electric Forest is nothing short of a magical experience. The festival is nestled in the Sherwood Forest, a gorgeous wonderland of art installations and twinkling lights. This summer music festival is the first of its kind, as its lineup is a fantastical blend of jam bands and electronic dance music that will have anyone on their feet. Electric Forest is a delight to the senses from the moment you step on the festival grounds to the moment you leave.

When and where: Electric Forest will light up the sky from June 23 to the 26 at the Double JJ Resort in Rothbury, MI.

Who’s playing: The Disco Biscuits, Disclosure, The String Cheese Incident, Lettuce, Lotus, Marco Benevento, Big Gigantic, Kitchen Dwellers, The Nth Power, Star Kitchen, and more.

For the Food and Drink Fan: Bourbon and Beyond

Bourbon and Beyond is a four-day summer music festival that features an eclectic lineup of indie rock, soul, country and southern rock. This festival features an impressively inclusive lineup that highlights some of the most talented emerging artists in the world of soul, blues, country, and some of the biggest names in indie rock. It also showcases an impressive amount of food and beverage vendors offering the best libations that Kentucky has to offer. This festival is a great choice for attendees who are passionate about good food, great music, and excellent whiskey.

When and where: The Bourbon and Beyond festival will take place from September 15 through the 18 and will take place at the Highland Festival Grounds at The Kentucky Expo Center.

Who’s playing: Jack White, Pearl Jam, The Revivalists, Jason Isbell, Crowded House, and more!

For the Natural Beauty Lover: High Sierra

If you’re looking to see your favorite artists while surrounded by the majesty of nature, then High Sierra is the festival for you. High Sierra is celebrating 30 years of music nestled in the beauty of the Sierra mountains during this year’s summer festival season. This festival features an eclectic lineup, optional VIP packages, daily costume themes, and a family area. High Sierra is a great place to experience the beauty of the surrounding mountainside while enjoying the beating pulse of great summer music.

When and where: High Sierra will take place from June 30 through July 3 at the Plumas County Fairgrounds in East Quincy, CA.

Who’s playing: JRAD, Greensky Bluegrass, The Disco Biscuits, Goose, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Railroad Earth, Lettuce, The California Honeydrops, Spafford, Twiddle, SunSquabi, The Nth Power, and more!

For the Banjo Strummer: Telluride Bluegrass Festival

This legendary bluegrass festival has a reputation for spotlighting only the best emerging artists in the bluegrass and indie-folk space. It has been a part of the summer festival season since 1974 and anticipates over ten thousand yearly visitors. Telluride Bluegrass Festival is a unique experience that celebrates music, comedy, and circus performances. It features an annual battle of the bands and songwriting competition, as well as a family-friendly atmosphere. Telluride Bluegrass Festival is the perfect summer music festival for the attendee that wants to hear great bluegrass in the majesty of the Colorado wilderness.

When and where: Telluride Bluegrass Festival kicks off its 49th festival in Telluride, CO from June 16 through the 19.

Who’s playing: Tenacious D, Tyler Childers, The Infamous String Dusters, The Turnpike Troubadours, Peter Rowan, Kitchen Dwellers, and more!

If you can’t make it to a festival this summer, nugs.net has you covered. Start a free trial to listen to live soundboard audio, watch full concert videos, and livestream exclusive shows.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. X, May 13, 2022

Listen to “The Weekly Live Stash” with nugs.net founder Brad Serling every Friday at 5 pm ET on nugs.net radio, SiriusXM 716.

Rock
Widespread Panic
5/7/22 Wilmington, NC
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Metallica
5/5/22 Porto Alegre, BR
Icky Thump
Jack White
5/1/22 Nashville, TN
Turn On Your Lovelight
Voodoo Dead
5/1/22 New Orleans, LA
Bird Song
Billy Strings with Bobby Weir
5/7/22 Nashville, TN
Rock Candy
The Disco Biscuits
5/8/22 New Orleans, LA
Close Your Eyes
The String Cheese Incident with Billy Strings
5/3/22 New Orleans, LA

Weekly Live Stash Vol. IX, May 6, 2022

Listen to The Weekly Live Stash with nugs.net founder Brad Serling every Friday at 5 pm ET on nugs.net radio, SiriusXM 716.

Can’t You Hear Me Knockin
My Morning Jacket (w/ Trey Anastasio)
4/27/22 Atlanta, GA
Why Can’t You Be Nicer to Me?
Jack White
4/27/22 Atlanta, GA
We’re Going To Be Friends
Jack White
4/27/22 Atlanta, GA
So Ready
Goose
5/1/22 Memphis, TN
Demons
Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Sam Bush)
4/29/22 Wilkesboro, NC
Sitting In Limbo
Billy Strings
5/1/22 Saint Augustine, FL
Divisions
Umphrey’s McGee
4/29/22 Atlanta, GA
First Tube
Oysterhead
5/1/22 Atlanta, GA

Weekly Live Stash Vol. VIII, April 29, 2022

Listen to The Weekly Live Stash with nugs.net founder Brad Serling every Friday at 5 pm ET on nugs.net radio, SiriusXM 716.

Jailhouse Rock
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
3/10/22 Memphis, TN
Lend Me A Hand
The String Cheese Incident
4/22/22 Asheville, NC
Black Clouds
The String Cheese Incident
4/21/22 Charlottesville, VA
Hide And Seek
Billy Strings
4/23/22 Irving, TX
Weasel
Spafford
4/23/22 New York, NY
Lazaretto
Jack White
4/21/22 Brooklyn, NY
Fear of the Dawn
Jack White
4/19/22 Washington, D.C.
Fuego>What’s The Use?
Phish
4/22/22 New York, NY

Weekly Live Stash Vol. VII, April 22, 2022

Listen to The Weekly Live Stash with nugs.net founder Brad Serling every Friday at 5 pm ET on nugs.net radio, SiriusXM 716.

Carini
Phish
4/20/22 New York, NY
Time Loves a Hero
Eggy
4/9/22 Boston, MA
Here Comes Your Man
Pixies
4/18/04 Edmonton, CAN
Seven Nation Army
Jack White
4/17/22 Boston, MA
Black Clouds
Billy Strings
4/16/22 San Diego, CA
Can’t Stop Now
Kitchen Dwellers
4/15/22 Bend, OR
Ain’t That Wrong
Spafford
4/14/22 Hartford, CT

nugs.net Expands Live Concert Recording Catalog with Top Artists

nugs.net is thrilled to announce exciting new additions to its catalog of live concert recordings.

Over the past two decades, pioneer live music streaming platform nugs.net has evolved into the leading source for official live concert recordings from the largest touring artists in the world. With an ever-expanding digital archive of more than 25,000 concerts and hundreds of on-demand videos of full shows from marquee acts like Metallica, Pearl Jam, The Rolling Stones, Dead & Company, and Phish, nugs.net provides music fans VIP access to their favorite concerts anytime, anywhere. Throughout April, nugs.net is adding an iconic, genre-spanning collection of new artists and live concert recordings to their massive, unrivaled streaming library, including an epic selection of new and archival shows from Jack White, DARKSIDE, Pixies and more.

Jack White’s Supply Chain Issues Tour Concert Audio

On the heels of releasing his eagerly awaited new album, FEAR OF THE DAWN, Jack White kicked off his Supply Chain Issues Tour last week with two sold-out shows at Detroit’s Masonic Temple Theatre. The tour, which features White’s first headline shows in four years, will make 50+ stops across North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom through late August. In partnership with nugs.net, White will offer official soundboard audio from every stop on the tour, available to stream exclusively via nugs.net here: nugs.net/jackwhite. Of the new partnership, Third Man Records co-founder Ben Blackwell shares, “While we’ve been recording all Jack White live shows for years, only now did it finally feel right to release all of them quickly after the performance. And with nugs.net as our partner…we couldn’t be happier with the results.”

Six Epic Sets from Psychedelic Duo DARKSIDE

Beginning today, music fans around the globe can enjoy full-length concerts from DARKSIDE, the psychedelic collaboration between electronic producer Nicolas Jaar and guitarist Dave Harrington, who have partnered with nugs.net to bring two visually driven, atmospheric performances, as well as official soundboard audio from five epic concerts to the platform’s extensive streaming catalog for the first time. Watch DARKSIDE’s intimate sunset show overlooking the Manhattan skyline, Psychic Live set at Stereolux in Nantes, and more streaming exclusively on nugs.net here: nugs.net/DARKSIDE.

26 Pixies Archive Concert Recordings

Alt-rock icons Pixies also join nugs.net this month. 26 full-length concerts from the archives, including recordings from 1991 and the band’s 2004 reunion tour, will be available to stream on April 21 at nugs.net/thepixies. All shows feature the band’s original lineup: frontman Black Francis, guitarist Joey Santiago, bassist Kim Deal, and drummer David Lovering. Highlights include Pixies’ first show in 11 years at the intimate Fine Line in Minneapolis, a performance on the mainstage at Coachella, and a 2004 sold-out, four-night run at Brixton Academy in London.

Immersive 360 Reality Audio

Throughout the month, nugs.net will continue to bring the live concert experience to music lovers worldwide. Stream iconic performances and classic albums by David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and Janis Joplin in immersive 360 Reality Audio, which brings the electricity of live music and the energy of a crowd to you like never before. Experience exclusive live recordings from the Bruce Springsteen Archives, like The Roxy ’75, as if you were in the room with the E Street Band on the Born to Run Tour. Listen to the classic Jefferson Airplane Volunteers album the way it sounded in the studio, and hear David Gilmour play “Wish You Were Here” with the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra like you’re in the crowd of 50,000 fans. For more information and to start listening visit: try.nugs.net/360.

Third Man Thursday: Jack White Live in Paris 2012

Jack White

LISTEN NOW: L’Olympia Bruno Coquatrix, Paris, France – July 2nd, 2012

By Ben Blackwell

With his trusty all-male backing band the Buzzards, Jack White’s July 2012 solo debut in Paris is chock full of reimagined White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather favorites sprinkled amongst gems from the just-released Blunderbuss. Throw in choice covers of songs originally by Hank Williams and Dick Dale and a guest appearance by show openers First Aid Kit on “We’re Going To Be Friends” and the end result is a 23-song performance that runs the gamut from blistering to brash to breaking hearts.

Listen now

Setlist
Black Math
Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground
Missing Pieces
Weep Themselves To Sleep
Love Interruption
Tennessee Border
Hotel Yorba
Two Against One
I Cut Like A Buffalo
Trash Tongue Talker
Blunderbuss
Hypocritical Kiss
The Same Boy You’ve Always Known
Top Yourself

Encore
Nitro
Sixteen Saltines
Cannon
Blue Blood Blues
I Guess I Should Go To Sleep
We’re Going To Be Friends
Carolina Drama
Catch Hell Blues
Seven Nation Army

Jack White Live at Garden Bowl Lounge, 2001

Jack White

LISTEN NOW: Garden Bowl Lounge, Detriot, MI, June 3rd, 2001

By Ben Blackwell

The weekend had been a whirlwind…the slightly odd outdoor college gig on the Columbus campus of Ohio State at dusk on Friday night followed by the third time in nine months that the Stripes were onstage at Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky on Saturday evening…pretty sure it was the first run of gigs in the brand new 2001 model Dodge van that Jack and Meg had bought from the dealership for straight cash. I sold merch out of the back of the van in Columbus, Weezer’s “Green Album” was listened to on the drive, the band goofed on the Gories’ “Rat’s Nest” on Friday night…these are the few memories that are still retrievable two decades on.

We made our way back to Detroit with a tad bit of urgency, as there was an interview with Ralph Valdez on WDET radio on Sunday night followed by this performance at the Garden Bowl Lounge, booked under the name “John Gillis” with hopes of notifying some people while not tipping off ALL people.

In my memory, Brendan Benson was doing sound or at least some approximation of it. There may have even been a newly purchased PA for the occasion, but still, that room is a hard one to get the sound just right. Compared to previous Jack White performances in this spot, it felt a hair more subdued…no other musicians, no feral screaming, still that same electric hum, but more a calming exercise than some attempt to prove something or win folks over.

Jack first played the Garden Bowl Lounge, solo, in November 1998 and in the intervening three years he would play there no less than five additional times in various configurations. The June 3rd, 2001 show is, seemingly, the last time he’d play this intimate setting where he’d spent so much time, both socially and on stage, that time and the experience gained used to propel himself from local up-and-coming musician to internationally renowned ROCK STAR.

That being said, I am hard-pressed to find or recall ANY set by Jack White, in any incarnation or band, that is as varied and unique as this Garden Bowl gem. A layover, stopoff, way station…in my eyes, something that just had to be done as a means to get to the better things in the not-so-distant future. The metaphorical closing of one door so that fifty more could open.

All these years later, I’m legitimately surprised to find out that this evening is likely the first-ever live performance of “I’m Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman.” The take here is charmed…almost as if Jack had never even tried to tackle it without the beating heart electric piano that pumps throughout the recorded version…having to find his footing on the fly but never tipping his hand to the struggle.

Coupled with an early live outing of “We’re Going To Be Friends” and solid runs through tried-and-true (at least in Detroit) songs “Hotel Yorba” and “The Same Boy You’ve Always Known” along with “You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket” a good two years before the band would record it and those are the only de facto White Stripes songs shared this evening. The majority of the set is a phalanx of covers which almost reads as a road map as to where the future would lead.

Like “Rated X”…the Loretta Lynn-penned polemic here is plain but pointed, the live from the Hotel Yorba version would be recorded within a week and end up as a b-side from the Stripes come November.

Or “Cold Brains”…on this evening all contemplative and compelling, while just over a year later and an hour up the road Jack would perform it live with its writer Beck at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor.

Or “Baby Blue”…the 1958 Gene Vincent rockabilly gem, which soon after this performance found its way into Stripes sets and in seven weeks time would wrap up, on a lark, their first ever session for John Peel, as earlier that evening Peel had mentioned his appreciation for Vincent in passing.

“Who’s To Say…” had been a staple of Two Star Tabernacle’s sets during their brief 1997-1999 existence. The song was written by White’s Two Star bandmate Dan Miller and would see its debut release via Miller’s group Blanche on a 7-inch on my imprint Cass Records. Released “summer 2003” (I’m terrible with non-Stripes timelines) and complete with a stellar guest guitar solo from White, the Stripes’ version would follow close behind as the flipside to their “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” single in September 2003.

“Fragile Girl” was originally written by Dean Fertita and performed in his group the Waxwings, who joined the White Stripes on their West Coast tour in July 2001. Fertita would later perform with White in the Raconteurs and then as bandmates in the Dead Weather. White’s pre-song anecdote speaks to his endearing mishearing of the lyric “to unveil a vision” as “television” and its ability to break up a couple or bring them closer together.

The middle of the set is thick with blues and folk covers. White’s tackling of “Dying Crapshooter’s Blues” is arguably the highlight of the entire performance. The daft deathbed storytelling is accompanied by insistently accelerating guitar…from slow, to trot, to rollicking…as the listed litany of last requests piles up, the specter of impending death is palpable, as if there’s a rush to get all these thoughts out before Death wields its mighty scythe.

The folk standard “Black Jack Davey” tells its tale with an austerity of words, which would later make an appearance as the b-side to “Seven Nation Army” in roughly two years time.

“In My Time Of Dying” likely shows up on White’s radar via Zeppelin’s 1975 version. In the context of his performance here, both Blind Willie Johnson’s 1927 original (titled “Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed) and Dylan’s well-known take from 1962 seem to figure prominently.

White’s version barely hits the ninety second mark when, right before the start of the third verse, he pivots into Blind Willie McTell’s “Lord, Send Me An Angel.” Curiously, the first word of that third verse is “Lord” and I can’t help but think this was a purposeful connection between the two done on Jack’s part.

For me, being in the crowd for this performance was a treat…these were all songs that kinda felt like they’d just been floating in the ether for the past couple years. Things that’d be goofed on, messed with, maybe never fully explored yet. In the spirit of that, at approximately 3:14 mark of “The Same Boy You’ve Always Known” you can hear my distant voice yell “Hypnotize!” from the bar.

Jack had written the song roughly three years earlier as a “gift” to local band the Hentchmen. He’d come up with the idea that was vaguely in their musical wheelhouse, recorded a demo where he played all the instruments, and then shared it with them to ultimately…end up having the White Stripes do a version for “Elephant.”

Having heard that demo at the time and likely nothing of it in the intervening three years…I was just hoping to hear it again. My request went unanswered and I’d end up waiting another eight months or so before the Stripes started playing it live.

A recording of this show made by taper Brian Rozman seemed to be available in trading circles pretty quickly after the performance. The quality is solid. A few years back when gathering disparate master tapes for our vault, a DAT of this show recorded by Brendan Benson landed on my lap. Having been previously in the dark about its existence, I was happy to hear it was even better quality than the respectable audience tape…yet failed to capture the entirety of the performance.

So with the help of our crack mastering engineer Bill Skibbe, we stitched those two recordings together and gave the whole thing a proper mastering clean up for the audio you listen to today, just two weeks shy of its twentieth anniversary.

The Garden Bowl Lounge looks largely unchanged now from how it was back in 2001. There’s a new coat of paint on the walls, the random black and blue linoleum flooring has been replaced. But if you get in the cozy little nook where Jack was set-up on that calm Sunday night in 2001 and look up, you’ll see the same checker pattern black and white ceiling tiles, having held that spot for Lord knows how long.

LISTEN NOW

Jack White’s preparatory setlist for the evening

Jack White’s transcription of “Dying Crapshooter’s Blues” lyrics

Jack White’s transcription of “Fragile Girl” lyrics

Metro Times review of the performance

ARE TEENAGE DREAMS SO HARD TO BEAT?

LISTEN NOW

By Ben Blackwell, The White Stripes archivist and drummer for Jack White And The Bricks:

I was never legally old enough to enter the Gold Dollar when it was a functioning rock and roll club.

From my first visit on June 6th, 1998 (The White Stripes opening for Dura-Delinquent) until my final time through the front door on August 8th, 2001 (my band the Dirtbombs playing as a kick-off to a West Coast tour) I spanned the ages of 15 through 19. For insurance purposes, the bar was a 21-and-over establishment. But whether by carrying amps, playing the drums or just earnestly convincing whomever was working the door that I legitimately had no interest in consuming alcohol…I was able to see no less than two dozen shows there.

As likely the youngest person to have been a witness/participant in the music scene at the Gold Dollar…I am well aware that I was DAMN lucky to have done so. That may be the coolest thing I am ever even remotely adjacent to and truly embracing it I feel simultaneous both proud and depressed. Most people who peak as teenagers do so as some sort of high school football/cheerleader/big shot on campus bullshit…all things that I was expressly avoiding at that time. Yet, here I am, over twenty years later, still talking about the group that had a half-dozen mildly attended performances within a nuclear blast radius of each other, across five months of 1999 like it’s goddamned “Glory Days” and I’m Bruce stepping back from the mic so that the crowd can shout along the words to the chorus.

Tony Soprano saying “Remember when is the lowest form of conversation” fucked me up more than any other dialog in my life. I feel like I am constantly fighting with myself. Fighting to appropriately appreciate and contextualize the past and at the same time, attempting to downplay it, hoping that I’m currently living something that will be worthwhile to recollect in another twenty years.

While I weirdly never felt like “The Bricks” (a name we’d never called ourselves and were never referred to as when we were actually performing) were a real band, I was, by far, the weakest player in the group of otherwise professionals. I had yet to join the Dirtbombs and prior to my gigs with the Bricks I had played MAYBE three shows in front of a crowd. One of those was a high school battle of the bands. Another in a bowling alley lounge. You know…inconsequential shit.
So while an audience recording of this show existed in tape trading circles since immediately after the performance, this multi-track soundboard recording proved revelatory in what had been unheard to my ears since that night. The opening of “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” shined through with Brendan Benson’s striking countermelodies on guitar, all but nonexistent on the audience tape. When the opening lyrics came through I was confused…” Why is Brendan singing?” The delivery is unmistakably him, though through years and years of listening on a lo-fi tape I’d never noticed Brendan sang the first two lines…

Dead leaves and the dirty ground when I know you’re not aroundShiny tops and soda pops when I hear your lips make a sound…

Only to have Jack jump in, with gusto, guts, glory, and the response to Brendan’s call..

When I hear your lips make a sound!

I’m not exaggerating here…when I first heard this, clear as daylight, I choked up a bit. I think it’s beautiful and feels like a truly moving moment just accidentally happened to be caught on tape that night.

Although I play drums here, I have few clear memories of what went down that evening. Royal Trux, the headliners, were late to arrive. I believe they showed up after we’d finished our set. My mom was there. It was a school night. I was seventeen years old. Pretty sure I got paid. That’s about it. My entire time in the band I was just making a very poor attempt to play drums like Patrick Keeler. Why I thought I could approximate his style is beyond me, and I often compare myself to Billy Yule playing drums in the last-gasp iteration of the Velvet Underground. I really shouldn’t have been on stage or in this band, but am forever grateful and happy that I was.

The setlist features a couple of songs that aren’t on the Bricks live recording from the Garden Bowl two months prior, which was released as part of Third Man’s Vault #15 in 2013. “One and Two” is an original Jack White song that never ended up being used or recorded anywhere else, which is odd for him. I particularly enjoy the slippery bass playing of Kevin Peyok on this song and feel like he may well have been the glue that held the band together. “Candy Cane Children” feels odd outside of the context of the White Stripes, especially as they never really performed the song live. “Ooh My Soul” is sloppy sloppy sloppy and in my opinion, the first two chords presage what would come later via “Fell in Love With a Girl.”

All my personal caveats aside, the show is a legitimately fun listen. That weird time in ’99 where Jack just seemed like he had so much music seeping out of him that he had to hurry up and start ANOTHER band after the break-up of Two Star Tabernacle and his ousting from the Go…and that band seeming to be COMPLETELY different from either of those outfits or the White Stripes even. I can’t help but stress here, besides “Candy Cane Children” NONE of these songs would’ve been considered “White Stripes” songs at the time of this performance. They were “Jack White” songs that hadn’t truly found their form or footing in the duo format.

Originally included as part of our 27th Vault package back in the first quarter of 2016, the audio here is newly remastered by Bill Skibbe at Third Man Mastering…a facility only blocks away from the Gold Dollar address at 3129 Cass Avenue.

As part of my duties at Third Man Records, I was able to enter what remained of the Gold Dollar building on “official business” not long after the original release of this show. Clad in a hard hat and joined by folks representing the Illitch family that owned the spot…it was a sad collection of four walls, dirt floor, and collapsing ceiling. The idea was to try and see if there was some sort of collaboration that Third Man could spearhead to rehab the building. But damn…all I could think of was that besides the walls, there was no “there” there. As someone who had MANY formative nights in that space and saw more than my fair share of transformative performances on that stage AND could possibly help revitalize it…I was unmoved. I’d rather let the memories exist as they were than invoke a Ship of Theseus experiment. Though I did take solace in the fact that I had finally entered the building legally.

On July 22nd, 2019, the structure would meet its ultimate demise in a suspected arson, the news of which no less than a dozen people felt compelled to immediately share with me. Developers reached out to me directly asking if Third Man would be interested in trying to rebuild/recreate the spot. Dare I even mention that there was talk of Third Man getting the building for a $1/year lease prior to the fire? And that we weren’t interested then?
When asked by the Metro Times to comment on the fire at the time I said, “History like what happened at that club, for me, transcends the buildings it happened in. I’m sure there were probably at least five other fires in Detroit today that were far more tragic. Life goes on. This too shall pass. Memories are all that matter.”

I stand by that statement. I think I was unemotional about the fire because I actually had the vague “closure” of being able to walk through that room one last time. Bar missing, mirrors behind the stage disintegrated, finally able to go backstage for the first time (no one ever told me there was a backstage!)…the only sign music ever happened there being a destroyed Half Japanese / Godzuki / Wild Bunch handbill I’d dug out from underneath where the security monitors were. Otherwise…it was just a space, empty for 15 years, left to the ravages of time and the elements and scrappers and squatters and in desperate need of being demolished. You know…a regular building in Detroit.

So here’s to the memory of the Gold Dollar, to club owner Neil Yee for being wise enough to hit “record” so many times, to the sublime summer of ’99, to peaking early, to electric nights of loose rock and roll, played for no one you didn’t know, figuring it all out in the process, working on mysteries without any clues, crystalline and idealized in my mind, me unaware of how clueless I actually was at the time, feeling like there was nothing but opportunity, potential and promise that lay ahead.

While youth may be wasted on the young, why are teenage dreams so hard to beat? I think memories, true, deep, stay-with-you-the-rest-of-your-life-because-they’re-fundamental-to-your-ever-so-fragile-sentience MEMORIES are only thrust onto those who are both sufficiently eager and receiving. Old guys who only talk about old times have closed off their receptors, failing to continue as memory collectors. Scientists say that humans aren’t the only beings that recollect, that rats can have episodic memory, but I doubt those vermin are ever troubled by it. Yet the tenuous balance between nostalgia and living in the moment shows no signs of subsiding in my consistently evolving superego…with all indications that my final actions, final words, and final thoughts on this mortal coil will almost certainly be some act of reminiscing.
I hope when I get older I don’t sit around thinking about it, but I probably will.
You know…glory days.

-Ben Blackwell

February 17th 2021

LISTEN NOW

They’re Gonna Talk About You Still

4/20/03 Boston – Orpheum Theatre

5/19/03 Berlin – Columbiahalle

1/30/04 LondonBrixton Academy

2/1/04 ParisLe Zenith

January 2004: Glasgow, Scotland

Scottish Nation Army

New Years Eve 2003: A Finale With Friends

Thatch Goose 11/7/23 Amsterdam, NLD

Love Sick The White Stripes 10/27/03 Osaka, Japan

Pickin’ Up The Pieces Billy Strings 11/6/23 Amsterdam, NLD

Missin’ Me The String Cheese Incident 11/4/23 Austin, TX

All In Spafford 11/14/23 Mills River, NC

Like a Buddha Railroad Earth 10/8/23 Eureka Springs, AR

November 2003 – Looking for a Home

Simple Phish 4/17/23 Berkeley,CA

Madman From Manhattan Jack White 2/24/23 Aspen, CO

Ball And Biscuit Jack White 2/22/23 Brooklyn, NY

Jersey Girl Bruce Springsteen 4/14/23 Newark, NJ

Genesis Widespread Panic 4/16/23 Austin, TX

Draconian Umphrey’s McGee 4/14/23 Orlando, FL

Pancakes Goose 4/15/23 Chicago, IL

Meet Me at the CreekBilly Strings2/17/23 Atlantic City, NJ

15 StepsBilly Strings2/17/23 Atlantic City, NJ

Meet Me at the CreekBilly Strings2/17/23 Atlantic City, NJ

ApplesTwiddle2/17/23 Flagstaff, AZ

Cadillac RanchBruce Springsteen2/16/23 Austin, TX

CandymanBobby Weir & Wolf Bros (w/ Mikaela Davis)2/10/23 Port Chester, NY

Jesus Just Left ChicagoJack White12/8/22 Chicago, IL

Ball And BiscuitJack White12/8/22 Chicago, IL

Seven Nation ArmyThe White Stripes4/7/03 Wolverhampton, UK

Interior PeopleEggy1/28/23 Frisco, CO

Driving SongWidespread Panic2/11/23 Durham, NC

Tall BoyWidespread Panic2/11/23 Durham, NC

Driving SongWidespread Panic2/11/23 Durham, NC

Slacker Umphrey’s McGee 1/29/23 Cleveland, OH

Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Daniel Donato) 1/28/23 Washington, DC

Rambler’s Anthem Yonder Mountain String Band 1/28/23 Berkeley, CA

In the Eyes of Thieves Spafford (w/ Aron Magner) 1/27/23 Ardmore, PA

The Jupiter and the 119 Railroad Earth 1/28/23 Charlottesville, VA

The Butterfly and The Tree Railroad Earth 1/28/23 Charlottesville, VA

Steady, As She Goes Jack White 1/14/23 Los Angeles, CA

Best Feeling The String Cheese Incident 1/22/23 Runaway Bay, JM

Exodus The String Cheese Incident 1/22/23 Runaway Bay, JM

Best Feeling The String Cheese Incident 1/22/23 Runaway Bay, JM

I’m The Man Who Loves YouWilco6/21/03 Pittsburgh, PA

My Oh MyEggy12/1/22 Denver, CO

Sailin’ ShoesLeftover Salmon (w/ Lindsay Lou)11/26/22 Boulder, CO

Southern FlavorBilly Strings12/3/22 Berlin, DEU

Brain DamageBilly Strings12/3/22 Berlin, DEU

The Same Boy You’ve Always KnownJack White11/12/22 Bangkok, TH

Why Can’t We Be Friends?Twiddle11/26/22 Port Chester, NY

MetropolisOctave Cat12/3/22 Philadelphia, PA

LowdownPigeons Playing Ping Pong12/2/22 Charlottesville, VA

You Don’t Love MeThe Allman Brothers Band1/17/71 Pittsburgh, PA

Superblood WolfmoonPearl Jam9/20/22 Oklahoma City, OK

That Black Bat LicoriceJack White9/30/22 Tucson, AZ

Born On The Wrong PlanetThe String Cheese Incident10/31/96 Charlotte, NC

Those ShoesSpafford10/25/22 Bend, OR

Hunger Strike / Dear Mr. Fantasy / Hunger StrikeGov’t Mule (w/ John Popper)10/22/22 Ridgeland, MS

CandymanBobby Weir & Wolf Bros10/21/22 Eugene, OR

Low Spark Of High Heeled BoysSteve Kimock and Friends10/6/22 Charlotte, NC

All Wheels Turnin’Eggy10/15/22 Syracuse, NY

Bear’s Gone Fishin’Widespread Panic10/22/22 Milwaukee, WI

BubaGum Eggy 10/1/22 Pembroke, MA

So Fresh, So Clean Goose (w/ Big Boi – Outkast) 10/8/22 Austin, TX

Freeborn Man Billy Strings 10/6/22 Austin, TX

I Told Them All About You Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Mollie Tuttle) 10/9/22 Portland, ME

Señor Gov’t Mule (w/ The Dirty Knobs) 10/11/22 Durham, NC

The Same Boy You’ve Always Known Jack White 9/29/22 Sante Fe, NM

Crown Of Thorns Pearl Jam 9/11/22 New York, NY

Anorexia Zero 7/30/22 Eugene, OR

Everything’s Right Trey Anastasio 10/8/22 Berkeley,CA

Turbulence & The Night Rays Goose 10/11/22 Kansas City, MO

You Can’t Always Get What You WantWidespread Panic (w/ Chuck Leavell)10/1/22 Memphis, TN

TumbleGoose10/1/22 Atlanta, GA

I’ve Got You Surrounded (With My Love)Jack White9/17/22 Chattanooga, TN

Away From The MireBilly Strings9/30/22 Stanford, CA

Better Git It In Your SoulSteve Kimock and Friends9/23/22 Kent, OH

Terrapin Station SuiteBobby Weir & Wolf Bros9/30/22 Waterbury, CT

1/30/04 London
Brixton Academy

2/1/04 Paris
Le Zenith

Thatch
Goose
11/7/23 Amsterdam, NLD

Love Sick
The White Stripes
10/27/03 Osaka, Japan

Pickin’ Up The Pieces
Billy Strings
11/6/23 Amsterdam, NLD

Missin’ Me
The String Cheese Incident
11/4/23 Austin, TX

All In
Spafford
11/14/23 Mills River, NC

Like a Buddha
Railroad Earth
10/8/23 Eureka Springs, AR

Simple
Phish
4/17/23 Berkeley,CA

Madman From Manhattan
Jack White
2/24/23 Aspen, CO

Ball And Biscuit
Jack White
2/22/23 Brooklyn, NY

Jersey Girl
Bruce Springsteen
4/14/23 Newark, NJ

Genesis
Widespread Panic
4/16/23 Austin, TX

Draconian
Umphrey’s McGee
4/14/23 Orlando, FL

Pancakes
Goose
4/15/23 Chicago, IL

Meet Me at the Creek
Billy Strings
2/17/23 Atlantic City, NJ

15 Steps
Billy Strings
2/17/23 Atlantic City, NJ

Meet Me at the Creek
Billy Strings
2/17/23 Atlantic City, NJ

Apples
Twiddle
2/17/23 Flagstaff, AZ

Cadillac Ranch
Bruce Springsteen
2/16/23 Austin, TX

Candyman
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros (w/ Mikaela Davis)
2/10/23 Port Chester, NY

Jesus Just Left Chicago
Jack White
12/8/22 Chicago, IL

Ball And Biscuit
Jack White
12/8/22 Chicago, IL

Seven Nation Army
The White Stripes
4/7/03 Wolverhampton, UK

Interior People
Eggy
1/28/23 Frisco, CO

Driving Song
Widespread Panic
2/11/23 Durham, NC

Tall Boy
Widespread Panic
2/11/23 Durham, NC

Driving Song
Widespread Panic
2/11/23 Durham, NC

Slacker
Umphrey’s McGee
1/29/23 Cleveland, OH

Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More
Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Daniel Donato)
1/28/23 Washington, DC

Rambler’s Anthem
Yonder Mountain String Band
1/28/23 Berkeley, CA

In the Eyes of Thieves
Spafford (w/ Aron Magner)
1/27/23 Ardmore, PA

The Jupiter and the 119
Railroad Earth
1/28/23 Charlottesville, VA

The Butterfly and The Tree
Railroad Earth
1/28/23 Charlottesville, VA

Steady, As She Goes
Jack White
1/14/23 Los Angeles, CA

Best Feeling
The String Cheese Incident
1/22/23 Runaway Bay, JM

Exodus
The String Cheese Incident
1/22/23 Runaway Bay, JM

Best Feeling
The String Cheese Incident
1/22/23 Runaway Bay, JM

I’m The Man Who Loves You
Wilco
6/21/03 Pittsburgh, PA

My Oh My
Eggy
12/1/22 Denver, CO

Sailin’ Shoes
Leftover Salmon (w/ Lindsay Lou)
11/26/22 Boulder, CO

Southern Flavor
Billy Strings
12/3/22 Berlin, DEU

Brain Damage
Billy Strings
12/3/22 Berlin, DEU

The Same Boy You’ve Always Known
Jack White
11/12/22 Bangkok, TH

Why Can’t We Be Friends?
Twiddle
11/26/22 Port Chester, NY

Metropolis
Octave Cat
12/3/22 Philadelphia, PA

Lowdown
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong
12/2/22 Charlottesville, VA

You Don’t Love Me
The Allman Brothers Band
1/17/71 Pittsburgh, PA

Superblood Wolfmoon
Pearl Jam
9/20/22 Oklahoma City, OK

That Black Bat Licorice
Jack White
9/30/22 Tucson, AZ

Born On The Wrong Planet
The String Cheese Incident
10/31/96 Charlotte, NC

Those Shoes
Spafford
10/25/22 Bend, OR

Hunger Strike / Dear Mr. Fantasy / Hunger Strike
Gov’t Mule (w/ John Popper)
10/22/22 Ridgeland, MS

Candyman
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
10/21/22 Eugene, OR

Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys
Steve Kimock and Friends
10/6/22 Charlotte, NC

All Wheels Turnin’
Eggy
10/15/22 Syracuse, NY

Bear’s Gone Fishin’
Widespread Panic
10/22/22 Milwaukee, WI

BubaGum
Eggy
10/1/22 Pembroke, MA

So Fresh, So Clean
Goose (w/ Big Boi – Outkast)
10/8/22 Austin, TX

Freeborn Man
Billy Strings
10/6/22 Austin, TX

I Told Them All About You
Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Mollie Tuttle)
10/9/22 Portland, ME

Señor
Gov’t Mule (w/ The Dirty Knobs)
10/11/22 Durham, NC

The Same Boy You’ve Always Known
Jack White
9/29/22 Sante Fe, NM

Crown Of Thorns
Pearl Jam
9/11/22 New York, NY

Anorexia
Zero
7/30/22 Eugene, OR

Everything’s Right
Trey Anastasio
10/8/22 Berkeley,CA

Turbulence & The Night Rays
Goose
10/11/22 Kansas City, MO

You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Widespread Panic (w/ Chuck Leavell)
10/1/22 Memphis, TN

Tumble
Goose
10/1/22 Atlanta, GA

I’ve Got You Surrounded (With My Love)
Jack White
9/17/22 Chattanooga, TN

Away From The Mire
Billy Strings
9/30/22 Stanford, CA

Better Git It In Your Soul
Steve Kimock and Friends
9/23/22 Kent, OH

Terrapin Station Suite
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
9/30/22 Waterbury, CT

Ghosts of the Forest
Trey Anastasio
9/30/22 Riverside,CA

Turmoil and Tinfoil
Billy Strings
9/18/22 Saratoga Springs, NY

Living Over
Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Holly Bowling)
9/17/22 Morrison, CO

Waves
BIG Something (w/ Kanika Moore – Doom Flamingo)
8/5/22 Martinsville, VA

Hungry Like The Wolf
Eggy
9/10/22 Oak Bluffs, MA

Walkin’ (For Your Love)
Widespread Panic
9/17/22 Oxon Hill, MD

Come And Go Blues
Gov’t Mule
9/20/22 Oklahoma City, OK