The last time the White Stripes performed in the Memphis area was September 10th, 2001, at Earnestine & Hazel’s on South Main. If it seems odd now that one of the world’s biggest rock bands played a tiny downtown bar not generally known for its live music only a few years ago, well it was odd at the time too.
The blues-fueled indie-rock duo of Jack and Meg White hadn’t quite crossed over at the time, but they were awful close. Even then, it was as odd a combination of band and venue as one could remember. In the interim, Jack White has spent plenty of time in Memphis, mixing records such as the White Stripes’ Get Behind Me Satan, his side band the Raconteurs’ Broken Boy Soldiers, and the White-produced Loretta Lynn album Van Lear Rose.
But nearly six years since that last Memphis show, in support of their fine new album Icky Thump, the band will give its first post-stardom Mid-South performance on Tuesday, July 31st, at the newly refurbished Snowden Grove Amphitheatre in Southaven. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 and $35.
— Chris Herrington