Wednesday, 23rd September
The autumn equinox has arrived here, and it’s an extra-special occasion in San Francisco, with guitar hero Jack White back in town for the third straight year. Fans were already looking forward to a big show at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on 24th September. Then White pulled another card from up his sleeve when he announced an additional show at the fabled Fillmore Auditorium a week earlier. Now it’s a two-night stand, and fans are amped up.
White is having a big 2026 after following up 2024’s rip-rocking No Name album with Frozen Charlotte this summer, another killer album of edgy blues rock power that keeps the same quartet going for another victory lap. White has also continued stepping up in the role of progressive culture worker in recent years, periodically sparring in the media with America’s anti-democratic Commander in Chief Donald Trump.
It’s been truly refreshing to see a straight shooter like Jack White among a number of rock stars speaking out for liberty and justice, at a perilous time for America when the Trump regime has been waging a war on truth and reason. White has also been stepping out as a 21st-century renaissance man: promoting independent artists on his Third Man Records label, designing unique music gear with Third Man Hardware, creating art via Jack White Art and Design, and publishing a book of his lyrics and other writings last year through Third Man Books.
Jack White Collected Lyrics and Selected Writing Volume 1 finds the iconic musician and creator making another impromptu appearance in the City, when it’s announced that the Fillmore show will be preceded by an afternoon reading from White at the famed City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. Those who have to hold down a day job can’t attend, but White posts a video on Instagram that captures a heady moment from the event. The Gen-X rocker sounds a bit like Jim Morrison while reading poetry, creating a surreal vibe and conjuring a sense of spiritual connection to the bohemian era of the 1960s.
Around 9:00 pm, Jack White and his band hit the stage before a packed crowd at the Fillmore. No ubiquitous cell phones were in the air recording videos, as White required everyone to store their phones in Yondr pouches for the show. It’s a change of pace that generates something of a retro vibe to the turn of the millennium era before everyone had cell phones, such as when the White Stripes rocked the Fillmore in 2002.
“No Scratch Blues” from No Name opens with a heavy sound as the quartet rock out and White rips off an incendiary solo. The White Stripes’ “Little Bird” is an early highlight, with the vintage slide-guitar sound Jack White has mastered. “It’s Rough on Rats” employs similar deep blues slide guitar over a hot progression, and it sounds so good here at the Fillmore. “All Along the Way” from 2022’s Entering Heaven Alive brings the sound down to a simmering yet still mesmerizing level, as White sings of a romantic road “into the light from the dark”.
The Raconteurs‘ “Carolina Drama” has a blues-noir vibe, telling the story of an illicit affair in the Old South. The group are dialed in, yet the Fillmore is so packed that a shoegaze vibe sets in because of the lack of elbow room. The sharp riffs and deep-pocket groove of “Derecho Demonico” from Frozen Charlotte flip a switch, though, as the syncopated sound sparks a more dance-friendly vibe. Bassist Dominic Davis and drummer Patrick Keeler lock in tight as White throws down mad tone-science riffage, followed by keyboardist Bobby Emmett’s hot electric organ. “I got one rule, I don’t start nothing, nothing that I can not finish,” White sings defiantly.
“There’s Nobody There” is a hot rocker from the new album that keeps the vibe lit with fierce riffs over tight fills from Keeler in a syncopated groove. “Cannon” from the White Stripes’ 1999 debut conjures that turn-of-the-millennium vibe, though the song’s heavy blues tone goes back much further. Likewise for “The Union Forever” from 2001’s White Blood Cells, as Jack White and the band flesh out the White Stripes’ stripped-down duo sound with the full quartet.
“I Cut Like a Buffalo” from the Dead Weather is a treat; the band features White playing drums behind enigmatic singer Alison Mosshart of the Kills. The bluesy garage rock syncopation fits the Fillmore’s dynamic sound and timeless aura. White cranks it all the way back up with modern rock mayhem on “G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs”, the first single from Frozen Charlotte that lights another fuse. There’s something about this song and its infectiously edgy groove that’s made it feel like an instant classic from the moment it was released, to the stylish Liam Lynch video, the Saturday Night Live performance, and now the way it rocks the Fillmore.
“High Ball Stepper” from 2014’s Lazeretto is another delight as Jack White throws down more electrifying riffage over a big beat. The man isn’t just an ace guitarist; he’s a Doc Brown of the tone sciences, fusing blues elements from across the decades to create a fresh, vibrant sound that resonates through the space-time continuum.
“Archbishop Harold Holmes” from No Name is one of the evening’s most electrifying rockers, with a fierce groove and edgy riffs as Jack sings about “the walls of Jericho” and finding seven friends. The back half of the set has been alternately groovy and mesmerizing. “Ball and Biscuit” from the White Stripes’ 2003 Elephant album seems to continue a theme. White sings of possibly being a third man, but definitely the seventh son while throwing in some “Lemon Song” riffs too.
Toward the end of the set, Jack White suggests he’s going to head back to his hotel after the show to watch film noir movies set in San Francisco, a sub-genre that includes classics like The Maltese Falcon and Vertigo. The latter Alfred Hitchcock film seems to be referenced in the traditional free poster handed out after the show, with an image of a man falling (similar to the original movie poster). There’s also another larger print at the merch table, with stunning artwork featuring a mythical creature in space and a black cat.
The Raconteurs’ “Steady as She Goes” draws a cheer when it kicks off the encore sequence, and “Freedom at 21” from 2012’s Blunderbuss is another crowd-pleaser with its deep, bluesy riffs. The new “Dollar Bill” from Frozen Charlotte electrifies the Fillmore, one of those tunes that sounds fresh and familiar at the same time as the guitarist utilizes retro riffage some might recognize from Jimmy Page’s bag of sonic tricks. Yet White transmogrifies those vintage blues licks into a fiery modern rocker that targets the pervasive, greed-driven mindset that plagues modern society.
The show ends with smash hit “Seven Nation Army”, the White Stripes tune from 2003’s Elephant that’s become one of the most ubiquitous songs in modern music. Played to hype up crowds at sporting events across the nation, the familiar riffs conjure a collective consciousness of sorts that feels like a fitting way to close this special night at the Fillmore.
Thursday, 24th September
Fans line up outside the much larger Bill Graham Civic Auditorium across from San Francisco’s City Hall, where capacity increases from 1,200 at the Fillmore to about 8,500 with general admission seating. The arena fills up, from the packed floor section to the upper balcony. The band rocks out on energetic tunes like “That’s How I’m Feeling” and “Old Scratch Blues”, yet the floor scene looks really tight, as if there’s no room to move. Most of the balcony crowd remains seated, an ongoing trend among the Bay Area’s older demographic for at least the past decade, driven by the city’s existential real estate crisis.
White takes notice and asks, “Is this an acoustic show?” He suggests they bring out some chairs and, in fact, takes a seat for a few songs. The melodic hooks in “Love Interruption” make solid use of the acoustic guitar, as do the old-school blues sounds of “Temporary Ground” and “All Along the Way”. The band lifts the energy on the Raconteurs’ “Broken Boy Soldier” before “Dollar Bill” sends a charge through the audience as it did in the encore at the Fillmore. “Underground” from No Name electrifies the set further with an upbeat major key sound and scintillating slide riffs reminiscent of Led Zeppelin‘s “Traveling Riverside Blues”, before “Derecho Demonico” ignites with its monster groove.
The floor starts to loosen up during this sequence, while more fans in the balcony rise to dance too. The vibe is getting lit now, thanks to three new songs released over the past two years. It goes to show what strong material White has put together on his two latest albums, in turn revealing what disingenuous liars Donald Trump and his propaganda-pushing minions are when they tried to claim this past summer that White was washed up. They clearly knew White’s righteous critiques of the Trump regime were on the mark, hence the backlash. The reality is that Frozen Charlotte and No Name find the guitar maestro at the peak of his considerable sonic powers, making 2026 a great time to be a Jack White fan.
The vintage blues power of Albert King/Booker T & the MG’s classic “Born Under a Bad Sign” from the late 1960s adds to the old-school San Francisco noir vibe, as if Jack White could be one of the anti-hero characters in such a flick. There’s some tasty interplay between White’s guitar and Emmett’s organ, as if they were just working it out at the Saloon in North Beach. White keeps rocking the house with tunes from Frozen Charlotte on “There’s Nobody There” and “G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs” again, with the latter tune really getting the Bill Graham crowd going with an energy that ripples across the room.
White mixes things up in a big encore sequence with 2007’s “Icky Thump”, featuring some of the White Stripes’ most recognizable riffs and zeitgeisty lyrics as he sings, “White Americans, what? / Nothing better to do / Why don’t you kick yourself out? / You’re an immigrant too / Who’s usin’ who? / What should we do? / Well, you can’t be a pimp and a prostitute too.”
The show again closes out with a big romp through “Seven Nation Army”, which feels even more fitting in a larger arena where the anthemic energy cascades across the venue. The song seems to take on more and more of a timeless vibe as the years slide by and feels like it could play ’til the end of time, or perhaps the next beginning when “one boy and one girl” are ready to start again as White sings of in “G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs”.
It’s been a sensational 48 hours in San Francisco with Jack White and his killer band. It’s only too bad that this blues power can’t be utilized to vanquish the greedheads in the White House who have been working to strip America for parts to sell off to their cronies. Yet hope for the rebellion lives on with rockers like Jack White speaking truth to power, then backing it up with kick-ass tunes that take no prisoners.
