On Wednesday night (9/21/22) at Orlando’s Hard Rock Live, indie rock fans fought their way through Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights traffic and crowds to pack Hard Rock Live for Jack White’s Supply Chain Issues tour. Most fans arrived early to catch opener Cat Power.
If the opening act’s job is to hype up the audience with an energetic performance, Cat Power is an odd choice for a Jack White show. But if the opening act’s job is to whet the crowd’s appetite by performing great music, then it’s a great choice. Singer Chan Marshall and her three-piece backing band were covered in shadows throughout the 45-minute somber set. Marshall’s husky voice filled the venue with its vulnerable beauty as the band played a mix of slow crooners and mid-tempo songs.
The show opened with one of Cat Power’s more lively tunes, “Nude as the News.” Under cover of darkness, Marshall’s sensual voice melded with and occasionally rose over the arpeggiated guitar. Her voice was heartbreaking as she sang of depression on a powerful rendition of “Unhate.” Toward the end of the set, Marshall interacted with the fans for the first time. After taking one last glance at the setlist, she tossed the sheet of paper into the crowd and then returned to the show. The band then ended the set with a mid-tempo cover of Boys Next Door’s “Shivers” and a slow, brooding rendition of “The Greatest.”
If Cat Power’s soft, soulful set didn’t exactly fill Hard Rock with energy, Jack White remedied that as soon as he walked onstage. Over a two-hour set, White and his three-piece backing band delivered a passionate show that covered the gamut of the rock icon’s various bands, styles, and influences.
It all began with “Taking Me Back,” one of White’s heaviest and most experimental songs. White strutted the stage while he crushed pulverizing guitar riffs backed by a strong rhythm section from drummer Daru Jones, bassist Dominic Davis, and Quincy McCrary on keys. White and the band seamlessly transitioned into the aggressive fuzz of “Fear of the Dawn” and then The White Stripes’ hit “Fell In Love With a Girl.”
On the latter song, White toyed with the tempo and shifted the last third into a slow grind. It wouldn’t be the last curveball of the night. Throughout the set, White and the band regularly improvised songs to add new twists, whether variations to the riffs or tempos, new sections, or extended jams.
The setlist was also improvised, with White often noodling on guitar between songs while he decided what to play next. With no access to phones, the crowd gave White its complete attention, enraptured in a way that’s uncommon at modern concerts. White fed off that energy throughout the set.
White put down his guitar and played piano for the Raconteurs’ ballad “You Don’t Understand Me.” On songs like “A Tip From You To Me” and “Alone In My Home,” White showed off his country side, his twangy voice fitting perfectly with the acoustic guitar and Davis’s upright bass grooves. With the full band, “Hotel Yorba” had a stronger rockabilly vibe than on the original White Stripes version.
Midway into the show, White placed an emphasis on danceable grooves with the Dead Weather’s “Cut Like a Buffalo,” the experimental funk of “Hi-De-Ho,” and the heavy, psychedelic jam of “Into the Twilight.”
White’s wide range can perhaps be best summed up by two performances of songs from his White Stripes days. The brutal “Cannon” showed his intensity as he howled into the microphone while pounding the slow, trudging riff. On the other hand, with a simple finger-picked acoustic guitar, White led the crowd in a sing-along of the warm ballad “We’re Going To Be Friends.”
White and company ended the regular set with two more White Stripes tunes, “Little Bird” and “Ball and Biscuit,” in which White played several variations of the song’s well-known blues riff. As the band waited backstage, the crowd screamed in its customary role of encouraging the encore, but the cacophony of screaming eventually morphed into a chant of the riff from “Seven Nation Army.” After a few minutes of the crowd serenading White with the riff, he and the band returned for the encore.
A fiery rendition of the Raconteurs’ “Steady, As She Goes” started the extra set, with White again improvising a few variations on the main blues-rock riff. The band then played two more songs from White’s solo catalog, with the frenetic attack of “That Black Bat Licorice” as a stand-out moment.
For the last song, White gave the fans what they’d been asking for since he left the stage. After a bit of a slide guitar jam, White played the iconic guitar-through-octave-pedal riff of “Seven Nation Army.” The crowd jumped, clapped, and chanted as if at a football game throughout White’s blistering performance.
Whether playing soft blues, twangy country, heavy garage rock, or something more experimental, Jack White reminded the Orlando crowd that he’s one of this era’s most enlightening live acts.
