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Back in SoCal after 16 months, Jack White dips into his bag of tricks for sold-out shows at Fox Theater Pomona & Hollywood Palladium

Jack White at Hollywood Palladium

Photos courtesy of Jack White // Written by Josh Herwitt //

Jack White //
Fox Theater Pomona & Hollywood Palladium – Pomona & Los Angeles
September 25th & 28th-29th, 2026 //

When we caught Jack White play two sold-out nights at the Hollywood Palladium and one at the Santa Barbara Bowl last year (read our review of the shows here) to promote his sixth studio album No Name that came out unexpectedly in 2024, it was apparent his impending Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction as one-half of The White Stripes was more than well-deserved.

And while it’s well-known that White doesn’t perform with a setlist and can call an audible anytime he’s onstage thanks in part to his talented backing band that now consists of Patrick Keeler (drums), Dominic Davis (bass) and Bobby Emmett (keyboards), I also remember hearing some unfamiliar material during that first concert in LA. The riff White uncorked, after all, was too catchy to forget, only to find out later it was one that he and his bandmates had been tinkering with during the No Name sessions.

So when White unveiled two new singles called “G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs” and “Derecho Demonico” ahead of his “Saturday Night Live” performance in April, I knew what I had heard at the Palladium must have been an unreleased song. Merely days after, it was revealed as a surprise when Goldenvoice put out its 2026 schedule for Coachella that White would be performing Weekend 1 on the polo fields. But a couple of days before packing the Mojave Tent for his short, yet blistering afternoon set, White dropped more stunning news in the form of another major tour that included two additional dates at the Palladium this fall. Having witnessed his two gigs at the same venue less than a year prior, I was caught off guard by the announcement. “Could there really be a new album on the way?!” I thought to myself.

With our tickets already secured for three shows in the greater LA area beginning at the 95-year-old Fox Theater Pomona, two months would pass before we would finally have our answer. A pre-order listing on Third Man Records’ website in June was our first and only clue because by the following day, White had officially let the cat out of the bag about his seventh LP Frozen Charlotte arriving a day after his birthday and slated for the same Friday in July that his 35-date run across North America kicked off. Coincidence or not, the 13-track effort immediately stood out that day as one of my favorite albums this year.

Frozen Charlotte picks up where No Name left off sonically in many ways, but the addition of Emmett in the studio has injected a new element that has only enhanced White’s gritty, bluesy brand of rock ‘n’ roll and elevated his live show even higher than it already was. Its third single “Dollar Bill” — you know, that unreleased song we first heard at the Palladium — showcases some of White’s most invigorating slide-guitar work so far and is readymade to send any crowd into a frenzy as soon as Keeler comes in on his Ludwig snare drum. From start to finish, there’s a raw, untamed energy cutting through Frozen Charlotte that leaves you with no reason to press the skip button, and it’s clear with this latest batch of tunes that White’s lyricism and songwriting have only continued to become more inspiring, insightful and inventive, with “Raising the Grain” and “Neighbors Blues” ranking among the best in his expansive catalog, which spans nearly three decades.

Jack White at Fox Theater Pomona

What might have been most surprising, though, was the limited number of Frozen Charlotte tracks that were performed in LA with only two on the first night and three during the second (the subsequent night down south in Del Mar, it was just two again). Pomona seemed to get the most bites at the apple with a total of five songs making it onto the setlist, but the lack of any airflow in the 95-year-old Art Deco movie palace presented its own challenge for both the audience and band on a hot and sticky evening across the Southland. Stripes deep cut “I Fought Piranhas” off their 1999 self-titled debut stood out as a notable highlight at the Fox considering that White has only turned to it three other times on this tour, as well as the Nashville honky-tonk vibes emanating out of “Temporary Ground” from 2014’s Lazaretto.

But for those of us who had the LA shows coming up on our calendar too, Pomona could have almost felt like a warm-up gig for White and his sidekicks after their appearance the next day at Goldenvoice’s inaugural Ocean Way Festival on the beach in Santa Monica was abruptly canceled with two weeks to go due to the impacts of Hurricane Marie and safety concerns caused by it. That said, I have seen Mr. White plug in on more than 15 occasions — highlighted by a few two-night runs — since he launched his solo career in 2012, and the Detroit native has never let me down every time I have bought a ticket and let one of music’s last great guitar heroes send me into a blue-tinted trance. The truth of the matter is White has still been selling out the majority of his tour stops, including the ones we attended in SoCal, after doing so during 2025 and that same excitement has rolled right into this year.

For as much as Pomona served as a tone-setter, White made sure to crank the dial up to 11 when he took the stage in LA after having the weekend off. Maybe the extra 24 hours offered him the chance to rest and recharge because 30 minutes in, another guitarist had joined alongside White for a scorching rendition of The Raconteurs’ “Broken Boy Soldier” on the quartet’s Grammy-nominated first full length. Not until after they had finished trading licks did White take a moment to introduce Nick Valensi of The Strokes and then sans hesitation, ripped into the live debut of “Bless Yourself” as Valensi laid down its lead riff on his custom, burnt orange Epiphone Riviera to jumpstart the No Name garage rocker. Given the weight that White’s name carries on its own, it’s not often for him to hold sit-ins with special guests. But in a town swimming with actors, artists, creatives and musicians everywhere you look, Jack knows how to make the most of his resources. At one point we even got White’s former drummer Daru Jones, who opened the show with his DaruTronics project ahead of Minneapolis rapper Prof, replacing Keeler on the kit for “Lazaretto” that he recorded with White in Music City when he lived there and flashing his infectious smile to a roaring applause.

If what transpired on Night 1 at the Palladium was intended to convince us that Night 2 would be just as compelling and exhilarating, it might have undersold the ensuing marathon performance White gifted us unknowingly when we stepped onto the ballroom theater’s floor to find out what all the fuss with satanic doo-wop duo Twin Temple was (we thought they were pretty fun in case you were wondering). However, no one could have foreseen that White would bust out 28 songs over close to two and a half hours until 11:30 p.m. There was actually no way for us to have any sense of time with our mobile phones locked in a Yondr pouch — something we have grown accustomed to since 2018 when we headed up the coast to see White strut his stuff in support of Boarding House Reach (read our show review here). He did admit to us not long into things that “I feel like I could play three hours,” but I don’t know if anyone believed him because I certainly didn’t knowing that White’s shows usually clock in at 80-90 minutes with the encore from my experiences. I probably should have known better when he told us “We’re Going to Be Friends” and proceeded to leave the stage after only an hour or simply that White seemed to be in a celebratory mood as he took swigs from a bottle of Veuve Clicquot.

The extended encore that ensued for the next 12 songs could have been considered a second set by many folks’ standards. From our perspective, it proved once again why White remains one of the most electric acts in live music today. Anyone who has lived in the City of Angels for a while likely knows that LA crowds at concerts are notorious for not always exhibiting a whole lot of enthusiasm and White has said a big reason why he doesn’t craft a setlist beforehand is because he likes to feed off an audience’s energy. And there was a lot of it inside the Palladium, so much so that White declared right there Night 2 was the best LA crowd he has ever performed for. That’s probably why he kept going after “Steady, as She Goes” and didn’t stop, breaking out three covers and bringing out actor John C. Reilly — the star in his music video for “Archbishop Harold Holmes” — for a brief cameo at the end. Either way, it was quite an honor to earn such praise from a Hall of Famer who expects audience members’ undivided attention and will regularly summon their participation. In this day and age, that might seem like a tough ask and especially when you are performing in one of the world’s biggest entertainment capitals with no shortage of stiff competition night after night. White appeared determined to give everything he had in his return to Tinseltown after only 16 months, and other than the small sample from Frozen Charlotte, it was more than we could have imagined regardless of how many times we have seen White over the years. As we have stated previously in this space, the element of surprise has always been one of his greatest calling cards as a performer, and for any devoted fan nowadays, that’s a blessing entirely in and of itself.

SEPTEMBER 25TH – FOX THEATER POMONA

Setlist:
Intro Jam
That’s How I’m Feeling
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (The White Stripes song)
Old Scratch Blues
Derecho Demonico
Broken Boy Soldier (The Raconteurs song)
I Fought Piranhas (The White Stripes song)
Hypnotize (The White Stripes song)
Freedom at 21
I Can’t Believe What I’m Hearing
I Cut Like a Buffalo (The Dead Weather song)
Thick as Thieves
G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs
Temporary Ground
Dollar Bill

Encore:
Encore Jam
Icky Thump (The White Stripes song)
Underground
Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes song)

SEPTEMBER 28TH – HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM

Setlist:
Intro Jam
That’s How I’m Feeling
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (The White Stripes song)
Derecho Demonico
Love Interruption
Hotel Yorba (The White Stripes song)
Broken Boy Soldier (The Raconteurs song) (with Nick Valensi)
Bless Yourself (with Nick Valensi) (Live debut)
Cannon (The White Stripes song)
The Union Forever (The White Stripes song)
Archbishop Harold Holmes
The Union Forever (The White Stripes song) (Reprise)
Dollar Bill
It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)
Phonograph Blues (Robert Johnson cover)
Delta Bound (Rosetta Howard & The Harlem Hamfats cover)
Lazaretto (with Daru Jones)
The Hardest Button to Button (The White Stripes song)
Steady, as She Goes (The Raconteurs song)

Encore:
Encore Jam
Icky Thump (The White Stripes song)
That Black Bat Licorice
Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes song)

SEPTEMBER 29TH – HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM

Setlist:
Intro Jam
That’s How I’m Feeling
Black Math / Suzie Q / Black Math (The White Stripes song)
Old Scratch Blues
What’s Done Is Done
Hotel Yorba (The White Stripes song)
Hell Hound on My Trail (Robert Johnson cover)
Little Bird (The White Stripes song)
I Cut Like a Buffalo (The Dead Weather song)
High Ball Stepper
G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs
Derecho Demonico
There’s Nobody There
Hypnotize (The White Stripes song)
We’re Going to Be Friends (The White Stripes song)

Encore:
Encore Jam
Fell in Love With a Girl (The White Stripes song)
All Your Love (I Miss Loving) (Otis Rush & His Band cover)
Steady, as She Goes (The Raconteurs song) (snippet of “I’m a Man” by The Spencer Davis Group)
I’m Slowly Turning Into You (The White Stripes song)
Archbishop Harold Holmes (John C. Reilly appearance at end)
Cannon (The White Stripes song)
Ball and Biscuit (The White Stripes song)
I Think I Smell a Rat (The White Stripes song)
Baby Blue (Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps cover)
Carolina Drama (The Raconteurs song)
I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)
Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes song)

Jack White with Nick Valensi at Hollywood Palladium

Jack White with Daru Jones at Hollywood Palladium

On tour for their new album, Dawes celebrate ‘Christmas in LA’ with Eric Krasno, John C. Reilly, Mike Campbell & more at The Bellwether

By Josh Herwitt //

Christmas in LA: Dawes & Friends //
The Bellwether – Los Angeles
December 7th, 2024 //

When it comes to musicians and LA, it’s hard not to think of them like any 7-Eleven or Starbucks that you come across here — you can’t go very far before running into one. From amateur players all the way up to global superstars, so many have called California’s largest city home no matter where they have come from or how many miles it took them to reach Tinseltown.

But for as many as there are now and have been over the years, not nearly the same number are born and raised in LA. One of the world’s major entertainment capitals has always been a transient town for artists and creative types, and the proliferation of music makers who have moved to the City of Angels from other major U.S. markets in the past two decades has been particularly noticeable.

So when a homegrown talent comes along and climbs the ladder to book bigger venues, there’s always something special about watching a native Angeleno thrive in one of the most competitive music scenes you will find anywhere around (and with no signs of that changing soon).

Taylor Goldsmith is certainly one of them. Growing up in Southern California and attending Malibu High School, he was exposed to music during his earliest years. His father Lenny Goldsmith was a longtime singer-songwriter whose fascination with James Brown and soul music inspired him to perform at local clubs throughout the Bay Area and eventually tour with Oakland R&B and funk band Tower of Power in the 80’s as its lead singer. And although Lenny has recently retired from the stage after leading Malibu’s 12-piece New Old Band for more than a decade, his sons Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith have followed in his footsteps admirably.

John C. Reilly

The elder Taylor began his music career in high school, where he met guitarist/producer Blake Mills and formed the post-punk outfit Simon Dawes that drew from each of their middle names. Over the next five years they would play with a number of bassists and drummers, including Taylor’s brother Griffin, before breaking up in 2007 when Mills left the band and joined Jenny Lewis on tour. While Mills ended up also going on the road with Band of Horses, Cass McCombs, Julian Casablancas and Lucinda Williams prior to settling in as a session musician and producer who worked on projects like My Morning Jacket leader Jim James’ second solo album Eternally Even in 2016 and John Legend’s sixth Darkness and Light that same year, Goldsmith teamed up with former Simon Dawes bassist Wylie Gelber and once again Griffin on drums in his new project he was calling Dawes. This time, though, he would go in a different direction sonically, one that embraced the Americana and folk-rock sensibilities of the Laurel Canyon sound that legendary acts like Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joni Mitchell, and The Mamas & the Papas popularized in the late 60’s and other icons such as Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles helped usher through the 70’s.

For Dawes, the association with LA’s celebrated Laurel Canyon isn’t just some contrived or pretentious PR strategy to turn consumers onto their product. It all started when Grammy-nominated producer and Father John Misty collaborator Jonathan Wilson invited the band to jam with a crew that included Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Those informal sessions are what ultimately influenced and informed Dawes’ debut LP North Hills, which Wilson produced and recorded live directly to analog tape in … yeah, you guessed it: Laurel Canyon.

Yet, that was more than 15 years ago now and a lot has happened in the studio for Dawes since then. Putting out an album at a prolific rate of every two years (or less), their ninth and most recent effort Oh Brother dropped in October ahead of another headlining gig at The Bellwether for the group’s second annual “Christmas in LA” date. And like the inaugural event that saw Sam Nelson of X Ambassadors, Matt Koma of Winnetka Bowling League and Taylor’s own wife Mandy Moore, among others, take the stage in addition to a brief Simon Dawes reunion with Mills, it was a night filled with special guests as advertised when it was announced.

That said, a new year meant a new supporting cast for Dawes and as we found out over the course of two hours, there would be only one repeat appearance from 2023. The evening’s format had changed as well, with Dawes digging into some of their latest material at the onset and adding a new wrinkle to songs such as “Didn’t Fix Me” from 2020’s Good Luck with Whatever with Radiohead’s “High & Dry” as its intro. Montana alt-country artist Jonny Fritz, whom some might remember as Jonny Corndawg, was the first “friend” to arrive onstage, followed by Eric Krasno, who captivated the audience’s attention with his soulful singing and playful guitar work. This wasn’t the first time we had seen “Kras” in the flesh after many Soulive and Lettuce shows, but it had been a while and the three-time Grammy winner treated us to a sweet cover of Jerry Garcia’s “Sugaree” (watch below and h/t to Jen Cox for the footage) that came sandwiched between two Dawes cuts, including the tour debut of “If You Let Me Be Your Anchor”.

Christmas in LA 2024 - Dawes & Friends - Taylor Goldsmith & Mike Campbell

Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes (left) & Mike Campbell (right)

You know that one special guest we mentioned who was back this year? That would be Koma, who joined both Goldsmith brothers for a stripped-down, acoustic version of their new collaborative single “This Is Life” featuring Medium Build and Dawes that has already amassed almost 1.4 million Spotify listens since being released in June.

Of course, those weren’t the only tricks Dawes had up their sleeves and they made sure to save the biggest ones for last. It wasn’t a surprise that actor John C. Reilly would be in the building — we just weren’t sure how exactly he would be involved. The loud applause he immediately received when he walked out dressed in all white made him feel welcome nevertheless, as he dusted off his 2007 single entitled “(For Christmas) The People Want Cox” in a tribute to his leading role as Dewey Cox for “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and then duetted with Taylor on a cover of Gilbert Bécaud’s “Let It Be Me” that became a Top 10 hit in the states for The Everly Brothers.

When it came time to dial the energy back up a notch, it was Theo Katzman’s turn to bring the heat and the Vulfpeck guitarist proved to be all smiles in uncorking a searing solo on the Dawes single “Roll with the Punches” from 2016’s We’re All Gonna Die and subsequently showcasing his golden pipes during “Plain Jane Heroin” off his 2017 solo release Heartbreak Hits.

Some folks might be disappointed to learn that Dawes’ unequivocally most popular tune “When My Time Comes” wasn’t played like it was at The Fillmore in San Francisco and Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. What we got instead was something no other fans on this tour will get to witness, and I’m not just talking about all of the aforementioned special guests. Because it’s not every day that you get to watch the guy who co-wrote many of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ greatest contributions to music plug in and rock out. When the crowd heard Mike Campbell deliver the opening chords to “You Wreck Me” however, most of us, if not everyone in that room, knew what we were about to get. Or at least we thought we did until Campbell took over midway through and brought Taylor in for a call-and-response section that had their guitars squealing by the time they had reached the summit. It was those gripping moments — whether they were with Krasno, Katzman or Campbell — that made this particular concertgoing experience feel unique, and as Dawes wrapped with the title track from 2015’s All Your Favorite Bands while a smaller collection of special guests from earlier in the night assisted, you remember that you never quite know what’s going to happen when you see live music in LA. That’s the absolute beauty of it.

Setlist:
Front Row Seat
If I Wanted Someone
Didn’t Fix Me (with Radiohead’s “High & Dry” as intro)
Mister Los Angeles
From a Window Seat
House Parties
Trash Day (Jonny Fritz cover) (with Jonny Fritz)
Middle Brother (Middle Brother cover) (with Jonny Fritz)
Raise the Dead
Somewhere Along the Way (with Eric Krasno)
Sugaree (Jerry Garcia cover) (with Eric Krasno)
If You Let Me Be Your Anchor (tour debut) (with Eric Krasno)
Christmas Tree in the Window (live debut)
This Is Life (Winnetka Bowling League cover) (with Matthew Koma)
(For Christmas) The People Want Cox (John C. Reilly cover) (with John C. Reilly)
Let It Be Me (Gilbert Bécaud cover) (with John C. Reilly)
Roll with the Punches (with Theo Katzman)
Plain Jane Heroin (Theo Katzman cover) (with Theo Katzman)
You Wreck Me (Tom Petty cover) (with Mike Campbell)
All Your Favorite Bands