Coachella Review & Photos: Jack White Throws Country Curveballs in Thrilling Headliner Set

We’ve given you the Day Two overview from our Coachella 2015 experience, but this one deserves a focal point all its own. Jack White, suited with pinstripes and bathed in blue and backed by the finest Nashville imports a rock/country maestro and new-retro entrepreneurial architect could ever ask for, once again defined a festival experience with an even blend of jaw-dropping musicianship and showmanship. We knew he would deliver the goods – when has he not? But the angles and avenues were surprises, to say the least.

From the moment he blasted onto the stage, Jack looked angrily focused, his brow furrowed and eyes determined. Nearly every song featured a stylistic shift, if not a new arrangement entirely, and White worked very closely with the pounding percussion of Daru Jones to shape a blizzard of shifting beats and cadences. The flourishes and fills in “Lazaretto” and beyond were stupefying. Many beloved tracks including “Love Interruption” and “We’re Going To Be Friends” possessed a distinct country flare, reminding us once again that if he were to ever place the focus of his Third Man machine directly on the world of that bored sack of redneck-pandering radiobait, for even just a year, country music wouldn’t have any idea what hit it – nor would it ever be the same.

The aforementioned song was evidence of a highlight moment that makes a Jack White show so special: at the onset of “We’re Going to Be Friends” White brought his friends close to center, including theremin-slinging multi-instrumentalist and Old West saloon fixture Fats Kaplin, and violin player Lillie Mae Rische (who is a far more confident stage presence now than her Bonnaroo ’14 appearance). The true connective energy between them radiated with tear-welling force on some level barely perceived by our thick primate senses, but those in the moment felt the power of such beauty in musical honesty.

Honesty and connective spirit matter, despite the hype and banner ads, despite the sponsor jargon and culture-profiteers. This is why it’s far more than a Kanye-level rant when Jack, looking out at the sea of iPhones (but no selfie-sticks, thank you very much), roared: “Come on L.A. put your f*cking phones down for five seconds!”

This was no effort to send us back to the olden days directly, so much as demanding that sacred, connective intercourse of energy so many of us have forgotten how to feel, let alone value. ”The gold rush is over,” he announced at one point. “This is the new world, is it not?” True, but to what end?

Pearl Jam’s mastery of the art of the encore has one rival, and the White Stripes alum knows damn well how to play a crowd like the Devil’s fiddle. “Ball and Biscuit,” was a lusty, funky, skittering & squealing mess of greatness, followed by a blazing “Sixteen Saltines,” and a laughably-funktastic and awesome “That Black Bat Licorice”. A high-drama “Would You Fight for My Love?” followed, but it was the closer that did us in, as we all knew and expected. The song that elicits sports-stadium singalongs on every continent and has taken on a full cultural identity of its own, “Seven Nation Army,” is a show-closer festival jam if ever there was one.

Halfway through the song, we went ahead and took over for White, hijacking the riff and making it a roaring vocal chant. 

Jack wasn’t in total command of the energy so much as riding the current crackling between audience and stage players. “Shoutout to FKA Twigs, Tyler The Creator, Run The Jewels and everyone else who played,” White offered near the end, a reminder of how much prime-talent real estate he was claiming as a two-hour headliner on Saturday. He then asked us to remember to take a few seconds each day, each and every day to remember “that music is sacred! That music is sacred! That music is sacred! That music is sacred!”

Oh, we know, alright. We were feeling that sacred buzz well into the night, even through a surreal encounter with Tyler the Creator at Five Guys at one in the morning, miles offsite. But that’s a story for another day. Check out a full gallery from Jack’s set below:

Onward to Day 3 of Coachella 2015!!