The White Stripes Across Canada: Whitehorse, YT

"Is it OK if we play longer than we usually do?" Jack White asked the beyond-capacity crowd at Monday night's concert in Whitehorse. "We don't know when we're coming back here."

"But we're coming back," he added. Playing about 30 minutes longer than the previous night's show in Burnaby, B.C., Jack was true to his word. With a capacity of just over 400, the Yukon Arts Centre is by far the smallest venue on the tour.

It was a show of little banter. Apart from his pledge to return, Jack spoke only two other times: once near the beginning to introduce his "sister" Meg and later to thank a girl he met earlier in the day working at a coffee shop. Talk, however, isn't what the crowd was there for and The White Stripes knew it as they proceeded to belt out song after song.

Meg and her drum set sat on the left, while Jack, who dominated most of the stage, was surrounded by various guitars, keyboards and microphones. The show got underway at about 8:45 p.m. With no introduction, the Stripes walked onstage and played "Black Math" and "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground."

The duo offered the crowd a sharp contrast — Meg was calm and composed, Jack was the wild man. At one point, he repeatedly sang, "We're gonna rock, rock Whitehorse."

In all, Jack worked three references to the city into the songs, something that's ordinarily unheard of at a White Stripes concert. But then, there was much to this concert which was out of the ordinary. Jack humped a stage technician who came out to untangle a wire, and got so into one song that he lumbered across the stage, crashing through microphone stands and knocking over keyboards.

Towards the middle of the set, Jack launched into a lengthy, intense blues guitar solo that resulted in a broken string one song later.

They played a total of 29 songs, six more than the night before. Only two or three songs were played from the recently released Icky Thump. An eight-song encore began with "Blue Orchid" and the new record's title track. Then Jack put down his guitar, picked up a ukulele and, seemingly without the help of a mic, sang the bluegrass-inspired "Little Ghost." Of special note was the rarely performed third-last song, "You Got Her In Your Pocket," which was followed by "Denial Twist" and "Seven Nation Army." With the guitar still reverbing, Jack hoisted a Yukon flag and ran frantically around the stage before finally heading off.

Yukon Arts Centre artistic director Eric Epstein said the stunt with the flag gave the ending a nice touch, noting the band intended something similar for every province and territory on the tour. "Last night, I think they had to scale a building to get a B.C. flag," he said, adding that the Yukon flag was donated by the Arts Centre.

"The audience seemed totally into it. We had a really happy audience, 80 to 90 per cent of the crowd was standing 100 per cent of the time."

The small venue size was one drawback.

"Only a certain number of people could be here, so what they did this afternoon was wonderful," confessed Epstein, referring to a free, impromptu show earlier in the day at a downtown park.

Arts Centre front of house manager Matt Poushinsky was optimistic at the suggestion of a return. "After talking with their manager, I would not be surprised if they're back," he said, noting the band said they had a genuinely great experience while in Whitehorse.

The band had a chance to explore the area during the course of the day, and there were numerous sightings of them on the streets. Despite concert being sold out, Jack handed out piles of free tickets that turned out to be backstage passes.

As the show came to an end, the crowd dispersed gleefully. One enthused fan, Fiona Solon, described it as "radtastic." "It was just like nothing else that has come here and we were all lucky," she said.

"I was exhausted going in, and even more coming out, but it was definitely worth it," said Chris Vainio, who stood in line overnight to get tickets.

When all was said and done, Jack and Meg came with a whirlwind of fury and left an irrevocable mark. For a big city, The White Stripes might be just another band, but for one day in Whitehorse, they meant the world.