The White Stripes

mixed and mastered by Bill Skibbe, Third Man Mastering

live sound by Matthew Kettle

With a 6 month break just days away, it’s fitting that the final show of the tour opens with the line “When I hear my name, I want to disappear” and closes with “I just don’t know what to do with myself”. Having ended their first show in Paris back in 2001 with Jack proclaiming “Lafayette, we have returned!”, he couldn’t have predicted just how far the band would rise since then, as he tells the audience at the Zenith, “Good Lord, there’s so many of you!”. No doubt happy to be closing out the tour, there is a feeling of movement in this show, as the band confidently go from song to song. Listen as Meg enters early in Love Sick, with Jack giving an audible “Yeah!” in approval. There’s another moment like this during Ball and Biscuit, with Jack heard asking for “just one now” and Meg responding with a single hit on the drums, right on time. Perfect reminders of just how tightly connected the two were on stage. While many of the familiar songs in the set would carry over into the band’s eventual return in August, In the Cold Cold Night would get its final performance of the year, not to be performed again until the Get Behind Me Satan tour in 2005. And even though the set is mostly filled with songs that they had played dozens of times on the tour, many of the performances feel as if updated for the occasion of this being the last show. During I Fought Piranhas, the line “Who puts up a fight walking out of hell?” never sounded so appropriate, and the version of The Same Boy You’ve Always Known is played as if having been written for that moment when it’s time to say goodbye. Never ones to go quietly, Cannon gets a rare inclusion of Diddy Wah Diddy, a song only played one other time back in 1999, and gets followed by The Big Three Killed My Baby with Jack riffing on everything from George Bush, the auto companies, and a declaration that "America's mind is lazy!” before going into a chant of “I'm about to tell the news Meg!" – thoroughly getting it all in for this final performance. After Jack the Ripper they also slot in an impromptu cover of the song Superstition by The Kills. Unlike the quote of the song at LA on 9/22/03, here it gets played complete with the original riff. In the encores, Lafayette Blues serves as the perfect setup before they close the show with I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, with Jack thanking France for being "the country that produced Michel Gondry". Having now wrapped a year’s worth of touring going out on a high at the Zenith, the farewell of "My sister thanks you, and I thank you! Good night Paris!" is delivered as if literally shouted from the top of a mountain.