Jack White's return to First Avenue is one for the history books

He also surprised his three bandmates, including drummer Patrick Keeler from White's side band The Raconteurs and keyboardist Bobby Emmett from Sturgill Simpson's camp.

There was no setlist anywhere on stage. White hastily transitioned from a blurry, chaotic end to one song to a quick, clean start to another song, and his band joined in. The setlist ended up being in a completely different order than other cities, with some surprising entries – as is the case in all cities.

He stacked the first part of the set with songs from the new album, starting with the LP's guttural opening track, “Old Scratch Blues.” This segued straight into the livelier single “That's How I'm Feeling”, which soon gave way to one of the night's most manic and monstrous – if bizarre – highlights: “It's Rough on Rats (If You're Asking)” a showpiece for his slide guitar skills.

All three songs were less than three months old and were embraced by the crowd like staple/classic setlist fodder for decades to come. But White also offered plenty of basics from earlier decades.

The early, deep-cut “Little Bird,” stretched into a rollercoaster-like jam, was the first White Stripes song to appear. The next one came in the middle of the show after a really bluesy, holy sounding cover of Robert Johnson's “Love in Vain” played on acoustic guitar. With an acoustic guitar in hand, White walked off and entered the Stripes' “Hotel Yorba,” prompting an excited sing-along and scream-along from the Elbow crowd.

Things got really intense in the second half. A kind of heavy from Black Sabbath. White and the band thundered through the Raconteurs' epic “Broken Boy Soldier” and a metallic version of his 2022 solo piece “Fear of the Dawn” before launching into the White Stripes' tank-rolling sports arena anthem “Seven Nation Army.” for a rollicking finale before the encore.