The Raconteurs “Live in Tulsa” 2020. Third Man Records, Vault Package 43. Yesterday June 9th was Jack White’s 48th birthday (b. John Gillis, 1975). The triple LP box set captures The Raconteurs shows at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa from October 13th, 14th and 16th in 2019 (all sold out). Being a Third Man Vault release, it comes gorgeously packaged, on green, copper and black vinyl with extras thrown in: a flexi-disk of The Raconteurs “I’m Your Puppet,” a cover originally by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham and made famous by James & Bobby Purify (1966). The Vault package also supposedly came with a blu-ray of two acoustic performances by Jack White and Brendon Benson from 1999 and 2019 but I can’t find it; either ours was packaged without it (unlikely) or I stashed it somewhere 3-1/2 years ago and forgot what I did with it (very likely: I think we received Vault #43 exactly when the pandemic began and I was, to put it lightly, a bit distracted).

The Tulsa shows are blistering high energy with some covers and medleys sprinkled into the Raconteur mix. Some of my favorites include the little infusion of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” (with an endearing false-start) into “Top Yourself” from the 2008 Consolers of the Lonely and the songs “Gloria” and “I Want Candy” into “Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)” from the 2019 Help Us Stranger LP. Other top picks are “Help Me Stranger,” “Sunday Driver,” “Only Child” (all from Help Us Stranger), the frenetic and borderline bonkers “Salute Your Solution” (from Consolers) and “Steady As She Goes” (from the 2006 album Broken Boy Soldiers).