The White Stripes...The Movie?

The Stripes head Into The Great White North
The Stripes head Into The Great White North

Jack White is one of the stars of the upcoming guitar documentary, It Might Get Loud. But he's got another doc already in the can, this one focusing on The White Stripes' 2007 tour of Canada.

"It seems to be much more than a concert film," White told the Canadian Press. "I think Meg (White) and I gave away a lot more than we ever would have imagined we would want to."

In 2007, The White Stripes set out on a Canadian tour that took them to cities and venues that a most native artists never played. A lot of their gigs were impromtu, and some of the locales they chose were quite unorthodox, like a Winnipeg bus where they performed Wheel On A Bus (good choice) and Hotel Yorba.

Shortest concert ever?

"As we went around and played a show in every province or territory, we realized that not even a Canadian band had ever done that" Jack White

The coolest - and definitely strangest - gig occurred in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, where they played a concert that consisted of one note.

Regarding the spontaneous nature of their performances, White said, "We'd make up an idea at breakfast of where we'd play that day, whether it was on a boat, bus, school or city park, then we'd make it happen. We didn't pre-plan it. I don't like to do that too much, because I think it ruins things."

"A vast, untapped place"

"It just felt like such a vast, untapped place," said White (who can count four generations of his ancestors as Nova Scotia natives). "As we went around and played a show in every province or territory, we realized that not even a Canadian band had ever done that. Which is wild, I can't even believe that.

"How did we become the first, you know? It's already the 21st century!"

Joe Bosso

Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar WorldGuitar PlayerMusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.