It turns out there was a method to the madness of the White Stripes’ 2007 Canadian tour. The trek, which was comprised, in part, of performances at several offbeat locales – including a Prince Edward Island fishing boat and a British Columbia classroom – will soon be the subject of a film documentary.
“As we went around and played a show in every province or territory, we realized that not even a Canadian band had ever done that,” a busy Jack White told the Canadian Broadcasting Company. “Which is wild, I can’t even believe that. How did we become the first, you know? It’s already the 21st century!”
The duo surprised Canadian audiences by popping up in unusual places during the tour and delivering impromptu performances. In one instance they jammed on a Winnipeg bus; in another, they did a kids-only show at a Toronto summer day camp.
“We'd make up an idea at breakfast of where we'd play that day, whether it was on a boat, bus, school or city park then we'd make it happen,” White said. “We didn't pre-plan it. I don't like to do that too much, because I think it ruins things.”
In April, White revealed to Pitchfolk.com that plans were in the works for a White Stripes film. Roughly 40 songs from the tour will be edited into in the documentary, which, according to White, avoids the usual “reality television pitfalls.”
“I'm pretty anti-reality television and all that ridiculous peeking behind the curtain sort of aspect of entertainment these days," White said. "But in this case, I don't think it really has that ridiculousness to it. It does have an insight into some of the things that got created and how we went about making a tour like that happen.”
A release date for the documentary has yet to be announced.