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Jack White just announced that his band, The Dead Weather, is playing a free Halloween show at a pop-up Third Man Records shop in London. In case you don't follow Jack White news, Third Man Records is White's record label/record store/recording studio/musical state of mind. Having a hard time keeping all of Jack White's bands straight? The Dead Weather is the band where he raps and wears black leather. I keep all of my Jack White projects organized by wardrobe. The White Stripes: red and white candy cane look. The Raconteurs: dust bowl, second-coming-of-The-Band look. The Dead Weather: black leather, "Natural Born Killers" look.

 

 

I'm certain The Dead Weather's Halloween gig will be full of the analog angst that Jack White has perfected over the past 12 years. He is a master showman, an uncompromising musician, and a loyal rock 'n roll foot soldier. He's got everything I look for in a musician: complete integrity, a disdain for corporatism, a reverence for history, and old school gear.

So why does Jack White bug me so much? I want to love him but it hurts too much.

Part of the answer came to me while I was watching "It Might Get Loud," director Davis Guggenheim's loving ode to the electric guitar as told through Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. The movie showed the boyish enthusiasm these guys have for the guitar. Their stories were unguarded and  lacked self-consciousness - for everyone expect White. He came across as a zealot more than a guitarist.

White spends a lot of time creating a perfectly controlled, monochromatic world where everyone wears a porkpie hat and no one owns an iPod. His purity is admirable but it lacks one essential ingredient: joy. White's musical asceticism forgets the fact that the greatest music aspires to meet our biggest dreams as well as our darkest fears. Midway through the film, White shows off one of his many pawn shop guitars. He holds the neck and explains the difficulty he has playing the crude instrument. "I want it to be a struggle," he says, as if to infer the only music of value is that born of conflict. Meanwhile, Jimmy Page is shown in his house playing one of his favorite records - "Rumble" by Link Wray. The Zep mastermind plays air guitar - smiling like a 4-year old on Christmas morning. All smiles.

And therein lies my Jack White dilemma. He's like the girls I dated in college: they all wore black, listened to my favorite bands, and were way too uptight. 

Still, I'm sorry I'll miss the The Dead Weather's London show. Halloween is a joyous time.