The Raconteurs reunited for a surprise performance at Jack White‘s Nashville show last night (October 10), playing together for the first time in nearly seven years.
White was performing the second of two consecutive nights at The Truth, a new 4,400-capacity venue that opened in Nashville earlier this month, when he welcomed his Raconteurs bandmates on stage for the encore.
The band comprises White, fellow singer and guitarist Brendan Benson, bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler, the latter of whom has also been playing in White’s current solo touring band.
The four-piece opened their reunion set with their 2006 debut single ‘Steady, As She Goes’, before playing ‘Hands’, ‘Level’ and ‘Broken Boy Soldier’. They finished with ‘Carolina Drama’, from their 2008 second album ‘Consolers Of The Lonely’.
The reunion had been teased on social media ahead of the show, with White posting on Instagram to encourage Raconteurs fans in Nashville to buy tickets for the show, hinting that “there just might be a little surprise”.
Elsewhere during Saturday’s show, White performed songs from throughout his catalogue, including The White Stripes‘ ‘Icky Thump’, ‘Black Math’ and ‘Seven Nation Army’, alongside solo tracks ‘Lazaretto’, ‘Freedom At 21’ and ‘That’s How I’m Feeling’.
The Raconteurs last performed together on December 13, 2019, at The Republik in Honolulu, Hawaii, bringing an end to an extensive touring year in support of their third album ‘Help Us Stranger’.
That record, released in June 2019, was their first in 11 years, following 2006’s ‘Broken Boy Soldiers’ and 2008’s ‘Consolers Of The Lonely’.
The band had made their previous live comeback at a celebration of Third Man Records’ 10th anniversary in Nashville in April 2019, ending an eight-year absence from the stage.
Their subsequent tour saw them play venues and festivals around the world, including a Mexico City show where The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas joined them for a cover of ‘The Modern Age’.
NME awarded ‘Help Us Stranger’ four stars, calling it a “smooth and pleasurable drive” and praising the interplay between White and Benson. The review concluded: “It’s a full-bodied album and a journey – a journey we hope it doesn’t take them another decade to make again.”
White, meanwhile, released his seventh solo album ‘Frozen Charlotte’ in July and has been touring throughout 2026.
