Jack White has brought out The Strokes’ Nick Valensi as a special guest for his show at Hollywood Palladium—watch footage of the moment below.
The blues-rocker stopped by the 4,000-capacity venue yesterday (September 28) for the first of two shows there, where he brought The Strokes guitarist onstage as a surprise. White and The Strokes have been friends for decades; in 2002, White joined the band on stage at their Reading Festival set to play the riff of “New York City Cops”.
Now, Valensi has returned the favor, as he accompanied White to perform The Raconteurs track “Broken Boy Soldier.” You can check out Valensi and White rocking out together below:
Valensi’s guest appearance at White’s concert is especially curious given the news that he won’t tour with The Strokes this summer. The guitarist has been part of the New York band since its inception in 1998. Via an Instagram story, the band framed Valensi’s absence as a “temporary break,” with Longwave frontman Steve Schlitz filling in.
There’s been speculation that the break was motivated by beef between Valensi and frontman Julian Casablancas, who revealed that the pair were not on speaking terms during an appearance on The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast last November.
Meanwhile, both The Strokes and Jack White dropped albums this year.
The Strokes unveiled their seventh album Reality Awaits last June, with writer Ryan Reed grading it a B. “The Strokes could probably never satisfy the critics who still salivate over the idea of Is This (Still) It,” he wrote. “Kudos to them for resisting the temptation. Even at its most immediate, Reality Awaits forces you to wrestle with it, to untie its pretzeled knots.”
White, in comparison, received a B+ for Frozen Charlotte, which was released the following July. Writer Grant Sharples surmised that the “sense of fun is palpable” on the record, adding: “The seventh son has once again let loose for another collection of back-to-basics bangers that hit like a sledgehammer to the head. “I got one rule,” he sings toward the end of “Derecho Demonico,” “I don’t start nothing, nothing that I cannot finish.” He’s already started his bona fide comeback. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like he’s finished just yet.”