Jack White at Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO (2025-04-04)

We never even stood a fighting chance–

In this corner, a lanky 49-year-old singer/guitarist and his three musical friends. In the other, 1700 of his loudest and most loyal fans all jammed together and daring them to throw their best musical punches.

That seemed to be the scene at the Uptown Theater in midtown Kansas City as Jack White returned to the area for the first time since 2022, for a long sold-out and relatively intimate performance, that would figuratively lay the venue to rubble. This second show of his continuing “No Name Tour” may be a hard one to top, even as the tour runs through the end of May.

The evening began with a half-hour opening set from local five-piece, Belle & the Vertigo Waves in what we’ll venture to guess, is their highest-profile show to date. Uniquely, her father, John Loux and now-husband, Jeremiah Scott are both in her band (rounded out by Zach Nielsen– guitar; and Elliott Holt– drums) and describe their sound as harder pop rock vocals combined with a harder rock/metal edge.

Belle wails with as much range, and as loudly as a young Pat Benatar, (with a hint of Lzzy Hale-obvious influences) and the band performed their own cover of “Love is a Battlefield” faithfully towards the end of the set. Everything started with a still-teenaged Belle and their first EP, (Re) Aligned in 2017 all the way up to their latest single, “Dfl” released just a few weeks ago, and the band would end their night with their 2023 track, “What You Wanted.”

Calling it the No Name Tour may be a little misleading from Jack White, even if it is the title of his newest full-length (out via his own Third Man Records) and even though it is No-Frills (with just keyboardist Bobby Emmett; bassist Dominic Davis; and Raconteurs drummer Patrick Keeler on a bare stage lit with spare blue lighting) and No Setlist (White nods to his drummer or simply revs up the next song, and God help if you can’t keep up). The fact of the matter is that is was 95 minutes of “all killer-no filler” blues garage rock, and a built-in guitar clinic to boot.

Playing like this “without a net” might scare off less inclined musicians, but the three showed that they were more than up to the task, and able to adapt on a dime. And, as represented in the music, this was a no F’s given version of White- phones didn’t have to be locked away and no extended dreamy solos, just a get out there and melt all 1700 faces so they’re still talking about it, weeks following.

When the band first appears and turns all their amps up, and then White emerges as they launch into a beginning Iggy and the Stooges cover, you had better be seat-belted in. There was no let up for the first handful of songs, moving from two crunchy tracks from the new album, to back twenty years for “Black Math” from the White Stripes’ “Elephant” album, back to recent times with “It's Rough on Rats (If You're Asking)” then back again to 1999 for “Screwdriver” with barely a breath or pause. You find your pulse racing and head spinning trying to keep pace with all these sonic body blows.

All along, White’s guitar work was impressive- he was already in the same conversation as Jimmy Page and The Edge (thanks to Davis Guggenheim’s 2008 film It Might Get Loud); but dare we say, he’s gotten even better since and his passion for the music goes without mention, just looking at the strides over the last couple decades of the Third Man label.

The one Dead Weather song covered was 2009’s “I Cut Like a Buffalo” featuring a monster riff Page would undoubtedly love, and White unstrapped from his guitar only for one song, for the Stripes’ “My Doorbell” which found him singing from the edge from both sides of the stage, as the crowd clapped along on the choruses.

The beat briefly slowed for the “No Quarter-esque” take on an ancient Robert Johnson cover, but was quickly back up and shaking with the new “Tonight (Was a Long Time Ago)” and the main set would end with the frantic slide guitar work on the new, “Underground.”

The encore was no less than six songs and began with a boom crash of instrumentation leading into the band intros and the show’s one dose of his other side band, The Raconteurs, with their single, “Steady, as She Goes,” an extended version with White starting the chorus then backing off as the crowd would finish it singing it back to the band.

The groove of 2014’s “Lazaretto” was another musical left hook to the jaw, and the new “Archbishop Harold Holmes” found White repeating, “You need to see me right away” with increasing fervor. What followed was a real treat (though most didn’t realize it until the song was done)- a brand-new, yet-to-be-released song, “Started What You Cannot Finish”, played publicly for the first time.

White emoted like a preacher exorcising any last bit of bad ju-ju before he and the band delivered the final knockout blows with White Stripes’ hits, a turned inside-out “Icky Thump” and “Seven Nation Army,” with the crowd anthemically howling and clapping along, like we all now do at every stadium-sized sporting event.

After a ‘full fifteen rounds’, the winner is Jack White and band, by musical knockout. With our ears ringing, mouth agape, and hands numb from clapping along, we all stood no chance in this showdown…and couldn’t be happier about it.

(click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)

JACK WHITE at Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO (2025-04-04)

JACK WHITE at Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO (2025-04-04)

JACK WHITE at Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO (2025-04-04)

BELLE & THE VERTIGO WAVES at Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO (2025-04-04)