Attendees walking into the Hollywood Palladium on September 28 expected the opening night of Jack White's two-show stint in Los Angeles, part of his North American run for 2026. They did not expect Nick Valensi to join him. White brought out the Strokes guitarist as an unannounced guest, putting two players who helped shape early 2000s American rock together on the same stage.
Valensi's walk-on carried weight because he has been notably absent from live stages lately. In May, The Strokes revealed that Valensi was taking a temporary break from their 2026 world tour. The band gave no formal explanation for the pause, only noting that they anticipated his eventual return. To cover the rhythm and lead parts on the road, the group turned to Longwave guitarist Steve Schiltz, a peer dating back to their early years in New York. The following month, singer Julian Casablancas remarked that Valensi would rejoin the group soon. Even so, no firm return date ever materialized, and Valensi sat out the entirety of The Strokes' recent North American leg. Playing with White marked his first concert performance of any kind since stepping back from the band.
The timing of Valensi's appearance comes just as The Strokes face an unusually busy calendar. The quintet put out their seventh full-length album, Reality Awaits, in July, and their schedule steps up significantly next week. The band is set to start a tour across the United Kingdom and Europe, an itinerary that includes their first complete sequence of headline dates across the UK and Ireland in over two decades. Fat White Family and Alex Cameron are scheduled to handle support. Seeing Valensi play a set in Southern California right before his bandmates fly overseas inevitably sparks curiosity about when he plans to reclaim his spot in the lineup.
Sharing a stage is familiar ground for White and members of The Strokes. In 2002, White made unannounced guest appearances during Strokes concerts in New York City and at the Reading Festival, where he jumped in to play the guitar solo on New York City Cops. Around that period, White also mentioned that The White Stripes and The Strokes had kicked around the idea of cutting a split seven-inch single together, though the concept never moved beyond initial conversations.
For White, Valensi's cameo fits a pattern that has defined his current tour behind Frozen Charlotte, his seventh solo album, which arrived in July. Rather than sticking strictly to a static routine, White has regularly invited guests to step in. During a summer stop in Chicago, he brought out Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes to take on Free's I'm A Mover. Later, in Brooklyn, the collaborative approach hit closer to home when White's daughter, Scarlett, took over bass duties for three songs.
Following the Palladium performance, White shared video footage online, officially crediting Valensi as a special guest guitarist alongside the rest of his touring outfit. Whether the Los Angeles appearance was merely an impromptu link-up between longtime friends or an initial step toward Valensi returning to regular touring duties, it was a notable public outing from a guitarist who had spent months entirely out of view.
