Jack White tears through heavy, ripping set in intimate Pittsburgh show

Jack White blasted through a 90-minute set of raw blues/punk Thursday night at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale.

Just announced on Tuesday, the show sold out in minutes on Wednesday afternoon, leading to a long, winding line at the ticket gate, with fans who struck out offering anywhere from $250 to $400 for spare tickets (and still coming up empty).

The densely packed crowd — it felt tighter than, for example, last year’s sold-out Dogstar show — bore witness to a powerhouse set, starting with the crunchy “Old Scratch Blues” from his most recent album, “No Name,” which has been heralded as his best solo work. White stuck with that record for “That’s How I’m Feeling,” which had the crowd singing along — commendable for an album that just came out a few weeks back — followed by “Morning at Midnight,” which had an almost metal riff.

A cover of “Stones in My Passway” led to two more songs from the new album: White showed off his slide prowess on “Underground” with more crowd participation on “What’s the Rumpus?”

White first came to fame with The White Stripes, so more than a few of those songs made the cut for Thursday’s show. “I Think I Smell A Rat” featured huge, thumping drums, while the rollicking, jangly “Hotel Yorba” inspired another crowd singalong.

“Broken Boy Soldiers” by the Raconteurs — another one of his post-White Stripes projects — closed out the set after 45 minutes, which led to a quick break.

The band — White, bassist Dominic Davis, drummer Patrick Keeler and keyboardist Bobby Emmett — delivered a funky version of “Lazaretto” alongside two more songs from “No Name”: the live debut of “Missionary” and “It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking),” among others.

The first encore closed with the White Stripes’ “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.” The full band allowed for a thicker, heavier version, barreling like a freight train. As a few headed for the door — how much traffic is there to beat in Millvale? — the remaining crowd chimed in with the iconic chant from “Seven Nation Army.”

A few minutes later, the band returned for a fun “Archbishop Harold Holmes” and “That Black Bat Licorice.” White and his crew then closed the night with a stomping version of “Seven Nation Army” that sent the crowd home happy.

More from the Jack White show at @MrSmallsTheatre pic.twitter.com/tVtZu7qgfg

— Mike Palm (@MikePalmMedia) August 30, 2024

White was a man of few words between songs, with a “How you feeling, Pittsburgh?” and some words of thanks after their first encore. (It seems he had already said a lot earlier in the day, unloading on former President Donald Trump on Instagram and threatening a lawsuit.)

As part of his No Name tour, White is playing venues much smaller than normal, with Mr. Smalls’ capacity at 800, while his last show in Pittsburgh in 2022 was at the Petersen Events Center, which seats 9,000 for concerts. After three shows at three venues in Washington, D.C., White hit Pittsburgh, with dates set next for Columbus, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Mich.

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The Gotobeds, a post-punk band from Pittsburgh, opened the show, joking that they knew everybody was there to see White. Their frenetic set ended in chaos, with broken guitar strings and the drums partially knocked over.