10 Greatest Secret Music Concerts Of All Time
5. Jack White
WHERE: An office block on The Strand
WHEN: July 2nd 2014
The best collaborations are the ones you'd never guess in a million years, but make all the sense in the world when they come together.
So, what does Jack White, all conquering rock star, vinyl enthusiast and enemy to phones everywhere have in common with immersive extraordinaires and (in this writer's humble opinion) Best Theatre Company In The World, Punchdrunk?
Both of them like to create tangible, immediate universes that people get lost in, and while Jack was touring his second studio album Lazaretto in the UK, they did just that.
If you signed up to a strange website called Vescovo and Co and received a call from the company confirming your "appointment", you were then sent a text directing you to a "medical testing facility" in the Strand. It's true, Jack and Punchdrunk predicted 2020 6 years early.
What happens next was a surreal, distressing riot of whiskey shots, medical tests, industrial music and live rats, culminating in 100 people who "passed" the tests being locked in a room filling with dry ice, when a curtain fell and Jack tore into a short but ungodly loud live set.
As if the experience wasn't weird enough, Jack's set was cut short by him having a fit, causing orderlies from the hospital to wheel him out the front door and into a waiting ambulance.
No. I've not made a word of this up.