[Herald Review] Grammy-winning Jack White’s 1st concert in Korea, rock-fueled blast of music

While the sky in Korea was graced by a mesmerizing total lunar eclipse, the 12-time Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter and guitarist Jack White flooded a Seoul concert hall on Tuesday night with a light haze and shades of blue with rock ‘n’ roll energy.

The concert, held at Yes24 Live Hall in eastern Seoul, was part of the American rock musician’s global "Supply Chain Issues Tour” and his first show in the country. Although the event was scheduled late on a weekday night, about 1,300 concertgoers flocked to the venue to enjoy the former White Stripes frontman’s spectacular live performance. A large chunk of the audience was foreign fans.

As the clock struck 8 p.m., White, his hair dyed peroxide blue, appeared on the stage bathed in blue lights. After strapping his blue and white colored guitar, the musician kicked off the concert with “Take Me Back.” Excited fans greeted the musician with deafening shouts and loud clapping.

Instead of a hackneyed greeting, the rock ‘n’ roll superstar performed a series of hits from various stages of his career. He performed solo hits as well as those with the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather. They included “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” “I Cut Like a Buffalo,” “Love Interruption,” “Love is Selfish,” “Hotel Yorba” and “Lazaretto.”

Over a thousand fans got wildly excited over White’s guitar playing, singing, hopping and head banging. They shook their arms up and down and made devil horn gestures with their hands while screaming and shouting during the show. In addition to showcasing various blues-based rock songs, the mogul boasted his excellent piano-playing skills for “You Don’t Understand Me.”

The musician also showed his affection for local fans.

“I really appreciate being able to see such enthusiastic people here. I wish America had that enthusiasm, too,” he said. He also talked about the Korean Series baseball game between the SSG Landers and Kiwoom Heroes he had attended the day before in Seoul. “When I looked into the crowd, they didn’t do Instagram or take photos. It was nice to see everybody being involved.”

What I noticed the most was White switching between multiple different guitars during the concert, to the point where I had to give up on counting the number of times he changed them. I was impressed at his effort to give the audience the best guitar performance possible. Another memorable point was when the fans sang the main melody of his masterpiece, “Seven Nation Army” instead of shouting out the word, “encore” to call him out to the stage again.

The concert was originally scheduled for a 75-minute run, but took another 45 minutes to wrap up. During the encore session, the singer-songwriter and guitarist performed another five songs and finally called it a day with “Seven Nation Army,” which generated a loud sing-along. The musician walked off the stage after saying, “Thank you so much Korea. You're incredible!” Some people did not leave the venue right away, as White’s music lingered in their minds.