Jack White was a special guest during IDLES’ Riot Fest set on the weekend, fizzing through an animalistic Never Fight A Man With A Perm armed with Lee Kiernan's storied pink Fender Mustang.
Headlined by Blink-182, Weezer, and Green Day, the Chicago festival was, for rock fans of a certain age, a jaw-dropping nostalgia fest. But the fast-rising British noisemakers weren't going to let those at the top of the bill have all the fun at Douglass Park.
“It is with great honor, I’d like to welcome on stage Jack White the First,” vocalist Joe Talbot had bellowed before the carnage ensued.
Video footage shows White and Kiernan in aptly riotous form, with squealing guitars and angular licks galore – not to mention a dollop or two of Whammy pedal wails. It's glorious pandemonium on stage, with the band clearly savoring the chance to trade off with one of their (ahem) idols.
The band haven’t said much following the performance – it speaks for itself, in truth. But IDLES’ other guitarist, Mark Bowen, posted a picture of White on stage with the group with the caption, “IFKYK.”
Lately, White has been running amok with his signature Telecaster – a model that’s found its way into the hands of Kirk Hammett and Vernon Reid, and his favorite new guitarist – but it’s the Mustang that gets a run out here.
Kiernan only got the guitar after a score of IDLES' preferred Fenders were stolen in the band's early days. That got the band an invite to Fender HQ, where, after a key modification, the Mustang stole his heart. It has since become one of his main axes, and it has the wounds to prove it.
“This was the first guitar I bought for IDLES, and it's been there ever since, and I've smashed it up, reglued it, snapped it... I love growing with it,” he told Andertons earlier this year.
Speaking to Guitarist in 2024, Kiernan dismissed digital amp modelers as “wack” as he dissected the band’s love of “violent, dark tones” and the often hodgepodge electric guitars they use to achieve them.
The band’s guitar tandem was selected to be the poster boys for Fender’s new Player II Modified series as their rise to the top of the contemporary rock pile continues.
Meanwhile, White has shown off the crazy guitar/bass hybrid built for him by Eddie Van Halen's go-to master builder, and we've never seen anything quite like it.
He's also on the hunt for a guitar he regrets letting go of as a teenager, and recently issued a plea to his fans to help him track it down.
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