Jack White at Hollywood Palladium
Photos courtesy of Jack White // Written by Josh Herwitt //
Jack White //
Hollywood Palladium & Santa Barbara Bowl – Los Angeles & Santa Barbara
May 12th-13th & 15th, 2025 //
If you talk to most people across the music industry and those who follow music, you won’t hear a lot of reverence for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Even after being established more than 40 years ago, it has about as much clout as the Grammys do these days and let’s be honest … that’s not saying much.
But every once and a while the RRHOF nominating committee gets it right, and this year’s induction of The White Stripes felt appropriate along with Soundgarden and OutKast (we know what you’re thinking, but the latter actually is far from being the first hop-hop act to earn the honor).
The gritty, bluesy garage rock that poured out of Detroit natives Jack White (guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals) and Meg White (drums, percussion, vocals) in the late 90’s and early 2000’s until their parting was unlike anything anyone had heard and seen at that time from only two rock musicians — let alone two who were married to each other for the band’s first few years but publicly presented themselves as siblings before eventually divorcing — playing their respective instruments.
And although he won’t publicly admit this, much of that had to do ultimately with Jack’s creativity and virtuosity as a guitarist. His distinct and unmistakable style that’s often highlighted by his high-pitched, screeching solos has propelled him into elite company with other legendary six-stringers like the late Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen or the great Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton.
Since the Stripes called it quits back in 2011 and Meg decided to put down the sticks for good, Jack has continued writing music at a prolific rate as a solo artist first and foremost but also for his other projects that include The Raconteurs and supergroup The Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart of The Kills.
Jack White at Santa Barbara Bowl
His sixth solo album No Name, which was surprise released last summer and initially distributed in the form of a free 12-inch vinyl with all purchases made at any Third Man Records location, ranked as one of our favorites in 2024 (see our picks here) and was named in several other “Best of 2024” lists.
Nevertheless, we would have to wait more than six months after first hearing the new material to catch Jack and his new cast of sidekicks in Southern California. Missing out on tickets for his album release shows in more intimate settings such as Lodge Room and the Mayan in October, our next opportunity to see him in the flesh came early this year thanks to the annual NAMM Show in Anaheim. It was on a rainy Saturday night in late January that we saw White perform about half of the songs from No Name during a sold-out gig he announced at the Grove of Anaheim and sold tickets for just a few days prior.
With shows on his “No Name Tour” already booked in LA and Santa Barbara this spring, it was a little surprising to see Jack book another one in SoCal ahead of those dates, but that’s what one of the last remaining guitar heroes continues to do more than three decades into his career whether he’s making new music or playing live: surprise.
The support for this tour has followed very much in the same vein, with Jack selecting a local band from each city he visits and revealing who it will be with only hours to go before showtime. That’s not why we spent two straight nights at the Hollywood Palladium as we did three years ago at LA’s YouTube Theater (read our show review here) — or at the Shrine Auditorium in 2012 — and embarked on another trek up the coast to the Santa Barbara Bowl after witnessing Jack’s debut there in 2018 for his third studio effort Boarding House Reach (read our show review here), however.
A lot has changed for Mr. White since those tours. Outside of bassist Dominic Davis, his backing band has been turned over with Patrick Keeler (The Greenhornes, The Raconteurs and The Afghan Whigs) replacing Daru Jones on drums and Bobby Emmett subbed in for Quincy McCrary on keyboards. He’s also married again for a third time — and we all know how much he loves the number three with Jack White III serving as one of his two pseudonyms — with his wife Olivia Jean growing her own career in the music industry and contributing at times to his, including recently providing bass or drums for some tracks on No Name. And not that it’s any of our business, but it does seem like they are a “good match” for each other in true Motor City fashion (no pun intended). Plus, we would be remiss to not bring up the fact he has moved away from his strict “no phones” policy, which saw him partner with Yondr up until his return to the stage last year. Watching him shred one axe after the next through a sea of phones in LA might have felt a bit different than what we have come to expect after seeing more than a dozen of his shows, but we can’t say it completely ruined the experience for us with Jack on top of his game and the crowd’s energy level never wavering throughout his 90-minute sets.
All things aside not related to his music, the 12-time Grammy winner still remains a must-see every time he comes town and for us that’s anywhere within a reasonable driving distance. Because as his sound expands further into new territory — this time leaning even harder into his garage-rock roots with some punk elements — and his artistry evolves deeper with each album, Jack’s shows never get old no matter how many evenings you have previously spent with him. Sure, there was a decent amount of overlap in the setlists across these latest three concerts we witnessed, yet Jack’s penchant for improvisation in the live space continues to seep into the overall DNA of his performances and offers a level of ambiguity (in a great way) for fans. Of course a place in the Rock Hall is certainly well-deserved for a multi-hyphenate musician whose biggest hit has been heard blasting out of PA systems in arenas and stadiums at major sporting events for almost 20 years now. In fact, when’s the last time the home team didn’t play “Seven Nation Army” at one point during a game? If you really want to understand what makes Jack so special though, you have to experience the magic of his live shows for yourself.
MAY 12TH – HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM
Setlist:
Intro Jam
Old Scratch Blues
That’s How I’m Feeling
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (The White Stripes song)
Instrumental Jam
Me and the Devil Blues (Robert Johnson cover) (Soap&Skin version)
It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)
Little Bird (The White Stripes song) (with “Me and the Devi Blues” outro)
Hotel Yorba (The White Stripes song)
What’s Done Is Done
Broken Boy Soldier (The Raconteurs song)
Why Walk a Dog?
Sixteen Saltines
Cannon (The White Stripes song)
The Union Forever (The White Stripes song) (with “Cannon” outro)
Fell in Love With a Girl (The White Stripes song)
Encore:
Encore Jam
Archbishop Harold Holmes
I’m Slowly Turning Into You (The White Stripes song)
What’s the Rumpus?
Lazaretto
Underground (with “Me and the Devil Blues” outro)
Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes song)
MAY 13TH – HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM
Setlist:
Intro Jam
Old Scratch Blues
I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)
That’s How I’m Feeling
Black Math (The White Stripes song)
Bombing Out
It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)
Let’s Build a Home (The White Stripes song)
What’s the Rumpus?
High Ball Stepper
Hello Operator (The White Stripes song)
I Cut Like a Buffalo (The Dead Weather song)
Encore:
Encore Jam
Steady, as She Goes (The Raconteurs song)
Archbishop Harold Holmes
Ball and Biscuit (The White Stripes song) (with “You Can’t Get That Stuff No More” by Tampa Red snippet)
Icky Thump (The White Stripes song)
Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes song)
MAY 15TH – SANTA BARBARA BOWL
Setlist:
Intro Jam
Old Scratch Blues
That’s How I’m Feeling
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (The White Stripes song)
It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)
Little Bird (The White Stripes song)
Love Interruption
Cannon (The White Stripes song)
The Union Forever (The White Stripes song)
Tonight (Was a Long Time Ago)
Broken Boy Soldier (The Raconteurs song)
Lazaretto
The Hardest Button to Button (The White Stripes song) (shortened version; >)
Archbishop Harold Holmes
Encore:
Encore Jam
Icky Thump (The White Stripes song)
That Black Bat Licorice
Ball and Biscuit (The White Stripes song)
Underground
Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes song)
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