Jack White shows his SoCal fans why he’s Hall of Fame material with sold-out performances at Hollywood Palladium & Santa Barbara Bowl

May 19, 2025 by 4 Comments
Jack White - Hollywood Palladium


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 - Santa Barbara Bowl


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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Goldenvoice shares latest round of Coachella sideshows this April after Weekend 1 tickets for festival’s 2024 edition finally sell out

February 21, 2024 by 2 Comments

Goldenvoice Presents April 2024 - LA

Is it spring yet? With all of the stormy weather California has experienced over the past few weeks, some sunnier and warmer days would certainly be welcomed right about now.

Of course, it’s around this time on the calendar when Goldenvoice starts turning our attention toward April for its biggest event of the year, but with Coachella’s announcement of its 2024 lineup coming a week behind schedule and tickets selling at a much slower pace than in prior years with Weekend 1 taking more than a day and almost a month longer than usual to sell out last week, it has seemingly been more of a challenge for the California concert and music festival promoter to convince folks to make the trek out to the desert.

Much of it has to do with the current, less-than-ideal economic conditions many people are facing at the moment, and with Lana Del Rey, Tyler, the Creator and Doja Cat set to make their headlining debuts in 2024, it’s far from the best the three-day, two-weekend music festival has had to offer in its 23 years on the scene.

But for those of you in the Golden State who might be living on a tighter budget than usual and can’t afford Coachella or just simply aren’t interested in spending thousands of dollars on a weekend out at the Empire Polo Club, the latest installment of sideshows in both Southern and Northern California can serve as a more economical option that still presents enough opportunities for everyone to catch some great live music soon.

After taking a look at the posters above and below, you might notice right away that there a significant number of more shows scheduled in SoCal versus NorCal, but the action will begin in the bay a week before Coachella’s first weekend gets underway when Belgian DJ/record producer Charlotte de Witte headlines the Cow Palace on Friday, April 5th. Other notable performances taking place in SF include Oneohtrix Point Never at The Regency Ballroom, Young Fathers at Great American Music Hall, Steve Angello at The Midway and Yoasobi at The Warfield.

Meanwhile, things pick up down south the following week as English rockers Blur stop by the Fox Theater in Pomona on Wednesday, April 10th for their first show on American soil since 2015 and another UK product in Jungle get set to play the 1,750-person venue the ensuing day. One change particularly noteworthy this year is the number of sideshows happening in San Diego, including the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park hosting Thai-funk trio Khruangbin with Latin instrumental duo Hermanos Gutiérrez and Alabama Shakes leader Brittany Howard performing at the world-famous Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay. Back up north in the City of Angels, there’s once again a TBA act on the poster after boygenius earned the honor last year and that’s something we will be sure to keep our eyes on with the expectation that more details will emerge next month about who will visit the El Rey Theatre.

Nonetheless, it’s also worth mentioning after comparing previous iterations that Goldenvoice has dialed back on the number of sideshows over the years, peaking at 62 in 2017 before 52 in 2018, 34 in 2019, 44 in 2022 and 32 in 2023. With only 24 in SoCal this time around, having 11 in NorCal does help pad the number back to 35 and we imagine it will continue to hover around this amount in the future based on the way things have been trending.

Ready to catch some live music? Tickets for the sideshows in Southern California go on sale here this Friday, February 23rd at Noon PT over the next two weeks, while admission to the Northern California dates is already available. Fans can also win a pair of Weekend 2 passes to Coachella as well as two Golden tickets that gives access to every “Goldenvoice Presents April” show in SoCal or NorCal (there are separate contests at the aforementioned link). So, with that we say … good luck, friends!

Goldenvoice Presents April 2024 - SF

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The War on Drugs prove in Adam Granduciel’s new hometown why they deserved to win a Grammy more than four years ago

March 4, 2022 by 1 Comment

The War on DrugsBy Josh Herwitt //

The War on Drugs //
Shrine Auditorium – Los Angeles
February 26th, 2022 //

What can you say about Adam Granduciel that hasn’t already been said or written?

Let’s just cut to the chase then: the guy keeps getting better and better with age. And though he might give off the impression that he’s a tad bit older than the 43 years he just turned last month thanks to all of those late nights writing songs in his bedroom or at the studio, Granduciel has continued to push the band he formed in Philadelphia more than 17 years ago to new and greater heights.

The War on Drugs’ foray into music’s mainstream has been a slow churn dating all the way back to 2005 before it culminated four years ago when they beat out a number of hard-rock heavyweights in Metallica, Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age and Nothing More to win the Grammy for “Best Rock Album” at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.

It was a career-defining moment for the group that’s heartland sound has centered around Granduciel’s fascination with Bob Dylan — an enthusiasm for the legendary folk singer-songwriter that he and fellow Philly-bred indie rocker Kurt Vile shared when they first started playing together in each other’s projects — and continued with his love for Bruce Springsteen. (There’s also a hint of Rod Stewart and Tom Petty in Granduciel’s work for good measure.)

Six months prior, I had caught The War on Drugs at Apogee Studio for KCRW’s Apogee Sessions (read our review here), and after hearing them preview a few songs off A Deeper Understanding that evening, it was right then and there that I knew the album was well deserving of some significant hardware.

But following 2014’s seminal Lost in the Dream — the band’s third album which might be arguably better than its award-winning follow-up — with another 10-track masterpiece, Granduciel had done what only a few are capable of these days, particularly in the rock space, by creating an emotional, yet timeless gem for our earholes to bathe in.

With little room to go up from there, Granduciel certainly had a challenge on his hands when it was time to make another LP. It wasn’t just that he had become a father to his son Bruce (yes, he really is named after the Boss) in 2019 and officially moved to LA’s San Fernando Valley shortly thereafter even if those were two major life changes, but the expectations surrounding The War on Drugs’ next studio effort had only grown even more since the last one.

For Granduciel, it didn’t matter. He went back to the grind and delivered once again. What resulted after hours at his Burbank rehearsal space with engineer and producer Shawn Everett was I Don’t Live Here Anymore, which arrived back in October and peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200. It’s another record worthy of high praise — in fact, I ranked it my favorite album last year (see our 2021 picks here) — and at the same time more accessible than its predecessors.

What makes The War on Drugs’ albums so great, however, is that you can just let them run. There’s no need to skip a track as one flows right into the next, and I Don’t Live Here Anymore follows suit much in the same way Lost in the Dream and A Deeper Understanding do. And as Granduciel seemingly settled into his new environs with music videos filmed in California for “Living Proof” and the title track featuring Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius, I was eager to hear the new material with an audience on hand.

So when The War on Drugs announced a tour for 2022 last summer and scheduled only one show in 2021 at Desert Daze, I knew their gig in LA at the Shrine Auditorium would feel even that much more special given Granduciel’s story but also because it was the final U.S. date before the band heads to Europe for a month. While that fact wouldn’t completely hold up with The War on Drugs replacing My Morning Jacket at Innings Festival the ensuing day, they made sure to offer quite a proper 2 1/2-hour concert experience for the nearly capacity crowd inside the landmark venue of 6,300.

Granduciel (vocals, guitars, harmonica, keyboards, samplers) and his cohorts — David Hartley (bass, backing vocals), Robbie Bennett (keyboards, piano, guitar), Charlie Hall (drums, organ), Jon Natchez (saxophone, keyboards), Anthony LaMarca (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) and Eliza Hardy Jones (keyboards, backing vocals) — were treating us to “An Evening of LIVE DRUGS” and most were happy to oblige. That meant “Old Skin” leading things off with “Pain” batting second. “An Ocean in Between the Waves” never disappoints, and slotting it third before one of the highlights off I Don’t Live Here Anymore in “I Don’t Wanna Wait” created a huge wave of momentum that The War on Drugs carried through the rest of the set, which boasted “Strangest Thing” and “Red Eyes” back to back, another new standout in “Harmonia’s Dream” that has been extended live and an appearance by Lucius as expected with Wolfe and Laessig leaving their East Coast origins for the City of Angels a few years ago.

When it came time to take things up a notch, Granduciel turned to “Under the Pressure” as still one of the most shining achievements in his ever-expanding repertoire. That’s not to say what came after — the previously unreleased “Ocean of Darkness” that didn’t make it onto I Don’t Live Here Anymore but was debuted during The War on Drugs’ performance on “The Tonight Show” in 2020 — didn’t carry the same weight, because in many ways it did considering the song has only been played live seven times in total so far.

After taking a couple nights off in Portland and San Francisco, “In Reverse” subsequently returned to the setlist and propelled us into a short-lived encore break that only lasted a minute or two. Granduciel, after all, had more to get to before saying goodbye, as he used “Thinking of a Place” to jumpstart a four-song finish that included a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Born in Time” and “Comin’ Through” from The War on Drugs’ 2010 EP Future Weather to mark only the second time fans got to hear it on this tour and since 2019.

Granduciel isn’t one for much stage banter, and after one last thank you, he broke into I Don’t Live Here Anymore finale “Occasional Rain” to take us all home. Even though it has served as The War on Drugs’ closer for several shows on this tour, the title seemed rather appropriate in a city as dry as LA where we haven’t seen a whole lot of precipitation this winter.

People often say the phrase “when it rains, it pours” when they experience a barrage of misfortune all at the same time. In Granduciel’s case notwithstanding, the past eight years have been one big downpour of success for The War on Drugs. Now with the band at an all-time high, it doesn’t appear that the storm Granduciel has been riding will be letting up anytime soon.

Setlist:
Old Skin
Pain
An Ocean in Between the Waves
I Don’t Wanna Wait
Victim
Strangest Thing
Red Eyes
Living Proof
Harmonia’s Dream
Your Love Is Calling My Name
Come to the City
Rings Around My Father’s Eyes
I Don’t Live Here Anymore (with Lucius)
Under the Pressure
Ocean of Darkness
In Reverse

Encore:
Thinking of a Place
Born in Time (Bob Dylan cover)
Comin’ Through
Occasional Rain

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Tame Impala unveil new jams in LA despite faulty PA system

November 17, 2014 by 1 Comment

tame-impala_postBy Josh Herwitt //

Tame Impala //
Shrine Auditorium – Los Angeles
November 12th, 2014 //

When neo-psychedelic rockers Tame Impala announced in mid-August that they would be hitting the road this fall for a select number of U.S. dates, there was hope among fans that the Western Australia outfit would be using its nine-date run to test out some new material for a third full-length album.

After all, the Perth-based band led by 28-year-old mastermind Kevin Parker had already toured extensively over the past two years in support of its sophomore LP Lonerism, so surely there had to be a good reason why it was returning to the U.S. this month for only four shows, including three on the West Coast.

RELATED: VIEW PHOTOS FROM TAME IMPALA’S SHOW IN OAKLAND.

Tame Impala

But while the motive behind Tame Impala’s mini-tour remained unclear, LA welcomed back Parker and his four sidekicks with open arms at the Shrine Auditorium, as they walked out on stage to a pre-recorded remix of Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” and quickly saluted the more-than-appreciative crowd.

And by the second song of the night, they were doing exactly what their fans had hoped they would do, introducing a new tune, one that they debuted four months ago during a performance in the UK at Manchester Albert Hall. What followed weren’t new, fully conceptualized cuts per say, but the quintet kept the room on its toes, offering extended versions of “Sestri Levante” and “Endors Toi” before later uncorking an even newer jam toward the end of the band’s 14-song set.

Yet, for as important a moment as this was for Tame Impala — Parker said at one point that the gig was the largest the band had ever played as a headliner thanks to the Shrine’s 6,300-person capacity — technical issues during “Alter Ego” stemming from a faulty PA system unfortunately put a damper on everything that had come before it.

With the brief delay between songs serving unconventionally as the band’s encore break, Parker and company shook off some nerves and finished strong, saving some of their best for last, including the dreamy, Pink Floyd-esque “Apocalypse Dreams” and hit single “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards,” which drew quite a bit of scrutiny from the music journalism world earlier this year.

Taking a page out of 60’s psychedelia, Tame Impala closed things out with the heavily experimental, far from succinctly-titled “Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control,” waving goodbye to Angelinos afterward for most likely the last time before they return to the studio.

Setlist:
Be Above It, New Song, Solitude Is Bliss, Sestri Levante, Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind?, It’s Not Meant to Be, Why Won’t They Talk to Me?, Elephant, Endors Toi/Jam, Oscilly, Mind Mischief, Half Full Glass of Wine, Newer Jam, Alter Ego

Encore:
Apocalypse Dreams, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards, Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control

Tame Impala

Tame Impala

Tame Impala

Tame Impala

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