So is this the future of live shows? Some theatrical stunt that people will certainly remember for a long time? However, this will surely make many magazines and blogs write about a concert, which could have stayed completely unnoticed among a long list of shows in a middle of a long tour. Jack White played a secret gig in London on Wednesday night and it turned into, either an act coming straight from some old-fashioned suspense-horror movie or a ridiculous stunt, depending how you see these things.
According to the Guardian, fans were alerted by an email to go to an anonymous office block on Arundel Street in central London, and once inside the building, they were handed the usual wristbands but also surgical masks, and plus they had to fill out a form ‘that signed away all rights and internal organs’. Then they took the lift up to meet Dr Fleming, and after a few antiseptic procedures, they were handed complete surgical outfits (blue surgical gowns, protective foot coverings, a bag for our belongings). You have to add to all this a strange hospital ambiance with nurses all around the place, and batshit crazy details such a ‘table of swabs and sample pots’,… ‘a leaflet about a urinary tract infection called pyelonephritis’,… ‘a doctor swept through the blue cubicle curtains and planted a stethoscope to my chest’,…’ an occasional announcement paging a doctor to another treatment room’,… What is this? Disneyland’s haunted house?
Fans were asked to complete lab rat maze tests, attempt to master a Rubik’s cube, listen to random songs, write words on blank sheets of paper, drink amber liquid from small plastic bottles (whisky?)… honestly, I would have refused and left right there, but they went through the whole game, which didn’t stop there: a patient was declared contagious, people had to hurry into a dark corridor filling with dry ice… and this is way too much, so now they are asking for a remake of ‘Outbreak’ or ‘Contagion’! Did they check the medical condition of these people for real? I mean, some of them may have had a weak heart or something!
They finally got to see Jack White and his band perform who made the most dramatic appearance: ‘And then the most terrific sound: a searing, wild-hearted call, as a light flew on and Jack White and his band appeared’. He did his show, a short set nevertheless (all this mise-en-scene for a few songs), then during the last tune, doctors rushed the stage and took away sick Jack on a stretcher and then to an ambulance! Jeezz! On the way to the exit, people received ‘Prescriptions from Jack’ certificates, signed by Doctore John A White III of Vescovo & Co, and I am giving all these details to demonstrate how meticulously this thing was thought and prepared. Of course Vescovo & co has a real blue, white & black website (three colors, and this is very important for Jack White!) which tells you that the ‘international health protection agency’, which ‘was ‘founded in 1926’ ‘by the Knights of Malta ‘, ‘tirelessly works to keep the world safe from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and domestic’. When I submitted my name/email, they said they were unable to respond due to a recent outbreak,… so don’t even bother! They may have stored my email address though.
Of course, everyone did understand, all this was inspired by the title (and some lyrics) of White’s latest album ‘Lazaretto’, which is an hospital for people with infectious diseases (especially leprosy or plague) or a building used for quarantine.
So you have it, now a show is considered interesting if there is all this theatrical stuff around music? Do we really need an outbreak and a good seizure on stage? I understand it was a one-time-thing (or at least I presume), but for me, this does not qualify as a concert, this is something else. I don’t know, but I find weird that all this paraphernalia-surrounded show comes from someone who has said that cell phones were a distraction from the music.
