Into The Music
Jack White is heading back to Europe this summer, and this time the run looks serious. Eighteen dates. Latvia to Croatia. Festival stages and theater rooms. Kicks off May 30 in Sigulda, wraps June 22 at Zagreb’s INMusic Festival.
White just finished the tail end of his No Name tour through Europe a few months ago, so the fact that he’s already back with a new European run says something. Either Europe is showing up for him in a way that keeps pulling him back, or he simply has no interest in standing still.
The itinerary covers a lot of ground: Warsaw, Krakow, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris twice, Brussels twice, Gothenburg, Stockholm, and multiple festival dates including Northside in Denmark and Best Kept Secret in the Netherlands. Lyon gets him at Les Nuits de Fourviere. Italy gets two nights. It’s a full circuit.
Before any of that, he’s got something else lined up: Jack White and Jack Black are both appearing on SNL on April 4, with Black hosting. That alone should be worth watching. Two Jacks in the same building is either genius or a recipe for chaos, and either way, good television.
The No Name album that drove the previous run got a lot of attention for how it arrived, pressed and sold at shows before any digital announcement, no artwork, no streaming. The music itself earned the attention it got. Raw and confident in a way that a lot of guitar-based rock hasn’t been for a while. White has always understood how to make guitar music feel necessary rather than nostalgic, and that record proved he still has the instinct.
Whether the summer European run brings new material or sticks to the No Name territory isn’t clear yet. Given that he’s been on the road with this record for well over a year, there’s a real chance new music is in the pipeline, even if nothing’s been announced. White tends to move fast when he decides to move.
The Paris nights are at L’Olympia, which is one of the better rooms in Europe for this kind of show. Intimate enough that the room does the work. Same with Brussels at the Ancienne Belgique. The festivals give him the big stages, but those theater dates are where the show tends to get interesting.
Full dates below. If you’re in range, this is worth the effort.
- May 30: Sigulda, Latvia, Sigulda Castle
- June 1: Warsaw, Poland, Klub Stodola
- June 2: Krakow, Poland, Klub Studio
- June 4: Berlin, Germany, Columbiahalle
- June 5: Hamburg, Germany, Georg Elser Halle
- June 6: Aarhus, Denmark, Northside Festival
- June 8: Malmo, Sweden, Slagthuset
- June 9: Stockholm, Sweden, Grona Lund
- June 10: Gothenburg, Sweden, Liseberg
- June 12: Beekse Bergen, Netherlands, Best Kept Secret Festival
- June 13-14: Paris, France, L’Olympia
- June 16-17: Brussels, Belgium, Ancienne Belgique
- June 18: Lyon, France, Les Nuits de Fourviere
- June 19: Lido di Camaiore, Italy, La Prima Estate
- June 21: Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy, Arena Alpe Adria
- June 22: Zagreb, Croatia, INMusic Festival
Eighteen dates, Latvia to Croatia , respect the commitment, but let’s not pretend Jack White invented raw guitar music. There are norteño guitarists from Monterrey who’ve been playing with that same stripped-back intensity for decades and nobody’s writing think pieces about their European tour schedules. The mythology around certain artists gets exhausting.
Latvia to Croatia!! That is a JOURNEY and I love that he’s committing to it fully. Jack White live is one of those experiences where you feel the electricity before the first note even lands. The energy he brings to a room is just different, this is going to be electric!!
I have great interest in this tour because Jack White is, I think, one of the few American guitarists who understands that the instrument must speak before the amplifier. In the Russian classical tradition we say the instrument must sing first , the technology serves, never leads. When I saw him perform in Moscow many years ago, before such things became complicated, this quality was very clear. I am glad he continues to bring this to Europe.