Jack White took to the Saturday Night Live stage this past weekend (February 25) to perform a total of three tracks from his two 2022 records, Fear of the Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive.
White, who recently completed his monumental Supply Chain Issues tour in support of the above records, selected some of his most prized acoustic and electric guitars for the televised outing, opting for his blue Fender Three-Wheel Motion Low Rider Telecaster and one-off silver burst-esque Acoustasonic Telecaster for the occasion.
No doubt White would have been spoilt for six-string choice going into the performance – his suite of stellar, custom-made guitars was put on display during a recent pro-shot Paris concert – but he used his chosen examples to devastating effect for performances of A Tip From You to Me and Taking Me Back/Fear of the Dawn.
For that first track, it’s the Acoustasonic that got put through its paces, accommodating White’s swaggering strums with a crystal clean tone.
However, it’s White’s mash-up of Taking Me Back and Fear of the Dawn that will really get guitar fans salivating, with the White Stripes legend calling upon his crazy Telecaster and famously well-equipped pedalboard for a five minute tour-de-tone.
From fuzz tones that sound like they’ve been drip-fed through a high speed blender to off-the-chain pitch shifting sounds that catapult the track into another tonal dimension, it’s White at his captivating best, with a no-holds-barred guitar solo putting the full-stop – nay, the exclamation mark – at the end of a truly wild rendition.
The fact that White’s performance looks so well-drilled is not only down to the fact he’s one his generation’s standout performers, but he’s also just come off the back of a rigorous tour, for which the same energy would’ve been required on a nightly basis.
Highlights from White’s Supply Chain Issues tour – of which there are many – include a performance of Nirvana’s Heart-Shaped Box, and a rendition of The Hardest Button to Button for which White recruited his 16-year-old daughter to assume bass duties.
Another highlight from White’s whirlwind trek was a secret set at the UK’s Glastonbury festival, which saw one of the first filmed live outings for White’s Acoustasonic axes.
