It was one of the most glorious moments of serendipity in television history.
Country singer Morgan Wallen was uninvited as Saturday Night Live’s musical guest after they discovered Wallen had been partying sans mask. To his credit, Wallen handled the decision gracefully.
Left with a short-notice vacancy, SNL put called in Jack White, a proven veteran of the Studio 8-H stage.
And he tore … it … up.
Pity Wallen, who wound up being thanked for torpedoing his own performance so that White could take his spot.
His opening medley stitched together a song he did with Beyoncé, a White Stripes song and a gospel blues song by Blind Willie Johnson, who died in 1945. He later performed his solo tune Lazaretto on a custom guitar Eddie Van Halen had helped to design for him, and he tossed in a bit of two-handed tapping as another salute to the rock guitar pioneer who recently passed away.
Guitar World also took a peek at White’s fuzz-heavy pedalboard, giving him a cornucopia of distinctive guitar tones at the touch of a foot.
But the handful of pedals that can be lifted with one hand is nothing compared with the extravagant shows SNL performers have put together in recent years. Last year, Billie Eilish performed on a set that rotated vertically, creating the illusion that she was walking on the ceiling.
Last week, Megan Thee Stallion showed she isn’t just the person who joined Cardi B for the in-your-face sexuality of WAP, with political statements projected on the wall behind her to reinforce the notion of respecting Black women.
There’s nothing wrong with those performances. Megan Thee Stallion made a powerful, timely statement. But White, armed only with a pedalboard, a few lights, a bassist and a drummer with a unique drum kit that faced away from him, more than held his own alongside the multimedia extravaganzas musicians have done on SNL.
In doing so, White proved a basic point.
Rock isn’t dead.
The Billboard charts might say otherwise. But when people want to see a show, there’s nothing quite like the power that some drums and guitars can conjure. (And, in some cases, keyboards.)
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