Jack White is one of my favorite musicians in the world. I dig his music, his performing and approach. With no setlist, you never quite know what's going to be thrown at you during a live performance, which is exciting as hell. So my sister and I were at his show on Saturday night 9/29 in Radio City Music Hall. We were digging the music. After about an hour of playing Jack walks off, band members follow. No biggie I thought, just a break in between sets, or perhaps a time to change band members(he is touring with two separate bands). Some minutes pass, even the ushers and security personnel seemed unclear as to what was going on. Then the house lights come on (not a good sign for shows continuing). Still, we did not leave, fans begin to chant and cheer, calling out for Jack, nothing. We here the random angry fan. The hall is in a buzz, then the curtains come down, a collective groan is heard in the hall, but still, we have not left. I said to myself, if he's changing bands behind the curtain, and comes back out, the hall would erupt. What a brilliant move it would be. As it turns out, that was wishful thinking. After about an hour of waiting, the ushers walked through and informed us it was over. We could not believe it. People were returning the Jack White merchandise they bought. There were all types of theories as to why it went down that way, to him being unhappy with the sound to him being unhappy with the crowd's energy level. Who knows.

Was anyone else there? Does anyone have a similiar experience with another artist? Sorry if this was already posted.

Peace and B Wild

Radici27

Bronx, New York City

wow, sorry to hear that - looks like P is in good company !. I wnated to get tix for the UK gigs, may hold fire for now.

Wow. Is he on drugs or something? I don't know it's strange. I enjoyed his album.

Said with a hint of sarcasm, what would the outcry be if the Org's namesake pulled a similar stunt? Just reading vicariously the posts by org attendees to his concerts these past two years , our guy would be crucified - on a starous - and who knows what else. Jack is a big enough act that he should receive a fair amount of scorn for this incident.

What's it with any star that just cuts their show after just an hour? I dig Jack White too but that was some bullshit...

But I doubt they'd give Jack as much scorn as Prince must've gotten when he was Jack's age or younger. Jack's almost 40 now. I just realized that.

well, he always seemed eccentric enough to do such a thing

he has that "weirdo/unpredictable" aura, much like Chuck Berry, Axl Rose, or Frank Black (fat singer/guitarist of the Pixies)

JoeTyler said:

well, he always seemed eccentric enough to do such a thing

he has that "weirdo/unpredictable" aura, much like Chuck Berry, Axl Rose, or Frank Black (fat singer/guitarist of the Pixies)

Funny but when I first read about this, the first person that I compared this to was Chuck Berry...

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

well, he always seemed eccentric enough to do such a thing

he has that "weirdo/unpredictable" aura, much like Chuck Berry, Axl Rose, or Frank Black (fat singer/guitarist of the Pixies)

Funny but when I first read about this, the first person that I compared this to was Chuck Berry...

great minds think alike

JoeTyler said:

Timmy84 said:

Funny but when I first read about this, the first person that I compared this to was Chuck Berry...

great minds think alike

It just seems bizarre though Jack always had that weird aura like you said. Maybe this adds to his eccentricity (and assholery lol). I'm sure this isn't the first concert he ended abruptly. I read somewhere he had to stop a White Stripes concert earlier because Meg White was too drunk to play drums or something.

[Edited 9/30/12 19:18pm]

I gotta look him up because I don't know who he is.

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

great minds think alike

It just seems bizarre though Jack always had that weird aura like you said. Maybe this adds to his eccentricity (and assholery lol). I'm sure this isn't the first concert he ended abruptly. I read somewhere he had to stop a White Stripes concert earlier because Meg White was too drunk to play drums or something.

[Edited 9/30/12 19:18pm]

we'll see if he has a long solo career or what, lol

JoeTyler said:

Timmy84 said:

It just seems bizarre though Jack always had that weird aura like you said. Maybe this adds to his eccentricity (and assholery lol). I'm sure this isn't the first concert he ended abruptly. I read somewhere he had to stop a White Stripes concert earlier because Meg White was too drunk to play drums or something.

[Edited 9/30/12 19:18pm]

we'll see if he has a long solo career or what, lol

It's like he's detached. I wonder how his careers with the Racounters and the Dead Weather are and does he have second thoughts of just ending the White Stripes as fast as he did after 13 years?

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

we'll see if he has a long solo career or what, lol

It's like he's detached. I wonder how his careers with the Racounters and the Dead Weather are and does he have second thoughts of just ending the White Stripes as fast as he did after 13 years?

I'm still waiting for the solo careers of Frank Black, Brett Anderson (Suede) and Noel Gallagher to take off

White could be the next one, lol

funkyhead said:

wow, sorry to hear that - looks like P is in good company !. I wnated to get tix for the UK gigs, may hold fire for now.

waaa? Prince doesnt cut a show after one hour does he?

JoeTyler said:

Timmy84 said:

It's like he's detached. I wonder how his careers with the Racounters and the Dead Weather are and does he have second thoughts of just ending the White Stripes as fast as he did after 13 years?

I'm still waiting for the solo careers of Frank Black, Brett Anderson (Suede) and Noel Gallagher to take off

White could be the next one, lol

Brett Anderson knew where his place was.

http://observer.com/2012/09/jack-white-abruptly-ends-radio-city-show-leading-to-angry-fan-mini-mob/

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jack-white-abruptly-ends-show-after-50-minutes-20120930

[Edited 9/30/12 21:13pm]

I've heard of other incidents with him storming off the stage. I can imagine that it gets tough, with drunken yahoos throwing stuff at you and very loud rock music that is not mixed right and thrust into your ears.

But still, I think it's pretty lame to take thousands of peoples' money and not deliver the best show you can. Like P, if you can't get good sound after so many years in the business, it's certainly not the crowd's fault!

rdhull said:

funkyhead said:

wow, sorry to hear that - looks like P is in good company !. I wnated to get tix for the UK gigs, may hold fire for now.

waaa? Prince doesnt cut a show after one hour does he?

In cologne he went off the stage after ONE SONG for about 40 minutes without any explanation. He came back, but the audience was pissed.

[Edited 9/30/12 23:04pm]

My first reaction after reading this was, "He played for an hour with only one album out. That sounds pretty fair to me." I suppose people were expecting him to do White Stripes and Dead Weather stuff too.

I've been to a LOT of gigs that were under an hour, but those were usually in small standing room only clubs.

sexton said:

My first reaction after reading this was, "He played for an hour with only one album out. That sounds pretty fair to me." I suppose people were expecting him to do White Stripes and Dead Weather stuff too.

I've been to a LOT of gigs that were under an hour, but those were usually in small standing room only clubs.

I heard he does covers sometimes. I don't know if he does White Stripes stuff though.

sexton said:

My first reaction after reading this was, "He played for an hour with only one album out. That sounds pretty fair to me." I suppose people were expecting him to do White Stripes and Dead Weather stuff too.

I've been to a LOT of gigs that were under an hour, but those were usually in small standing room only clubs.

Good call. If it's a new project he's touring and there is only one album, then an hour sounds about right. I wonder how long the album is?

I'm guessing people were expecting him to play songs from his other bands, but if those were completely different bands, I understand why he wants to keep them separate.

On a side note, some ungrateful people were complaining when Prince ONLY performed for 2.5 hours on one of his Australian gigs a couple of months back. FUCKING LOL.

sexton said:

My first reaction after reading this was, "He played for an hour with only one album out. That sounds pretty fair to me." I suppose people were expecting him to do White Stripes and Dead Weather stuff too.

I've been to a LOT of gigs that were under an hour, but those were usually in small standing room only clubs.

true, even prince did short shows back when he was just starting out.

But Jack White is not just starting out! He may technically only have one solo album, but he's playing Radio City! He's a veteran

NDRU said:

sexton said:

My first reaction after reading this was, "He played for an hour with only one album out. That sounds pretty fair to me." I suppose people were expecting him to do White Stripes and Dead Weather stuff too.

I've been to a LOT of gigs that were under an hour, but those were usually in small standing room only clubs.

true, even prince did short shows back when he was just starting out.

But Jack White is not just starting out! He may technically only have one solo album, but he's playing Radio City! He's a veteran

Yeah I don't really buy the one solo album excuse. He's got a lot of White Stripes classics he could've performed... it would be one thing if he performed at a club in NY but this is RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL. If a show has a time limit of two hours and you only do one hour, that's a waste of a show, don't you think?

I looked up Jack White setlists on setlist.fm and he does indeed perform White Stripes songs as well as Raconteurs and Dead Weather songs. It sounds like he was just having a bad night since the next night's show at Radio City was the full setlist.

sexton said:

I looked up Jack White setlists on setlist.fm and he does indeed perform White Stripes songs as well as Raconteurs and Dead Weather songs. It sounds like he was just having a bad night since the next night's show at Radio City was the full setlist.

One of the sites said he was complaining that he felt he was performing for an NPR show. I guess the crowd wasn't as enthusiastic as he'd hoped.

Timmy84 said:

sexton said:

I looked up Jack White setlists on setlist.fm and he does indeed perform White Stripes songs as well as Raconteurs and Dead Weather songs. It sounds like he was just having a bad night since the next night's show at Radio City was the full setlist.

One of the sites said he was complaining that he felt he was performing for an NPR show. I guess the crowd wasn't as enthusiastic as he'd hoped.

I hope that is not true. He is not paying the crowd to entertain him, after all.

NDRU said:

Timmy84 said:

One of the sites said he was complaining that he felt he was performing for an NPR show. I guess the crowd wasn't as enthusiastic as he'd hoped.

I hope that is not true. He is not paying the crowd to entertain him, after all.

Yeah that might've been a tabloid but people are already trying to find a reason why he ended so early. I guess for those who were there, he just upped and left...

I would be devastated if a Lana del Rey concert didn't stop after 60 minutes

JoeTyler said:

I would be devastated if a Lana del Rey concert didn't stop after 60 minutes

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

I would be devastated if a Lana del Rey concert didn't stop after 60 minutes