The White Stripes Share 2000 Performance of ‘Death Letter’

Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the White Stripes’ De Stijl on Saturday, Third Man Records shared a 2000 performance of the duo playing “Death Letter.”

The show took place on June 15th at Jay’s Upstairs in Missoula, Montana. The band is seen in their signature white and red outfits in front of a giant banner that reads “$1.25 Pints of Pabst During Happy Hour,” as Meg White drums along in her pigtails and Jack belts out the lyrics to the Son House cover: “I got a letter this mornin’, how do you reckon it read?/It said, ‘Hurry, hurry, yeah, your love is dead.’”

The footage is part of Third Man’s expansive De Stijl reissue for the 20th anniversary. It includes 25 unreleased tracks and live performances — including covers of AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock,” “Dog Eat Dog” and the Velvet Underground’s “After Hours” from 1969’s The Velvet Underground.

“Only recently discovered in the basement of Stripes’ archivist, Ben Blackwell, these recordings, many with alternate and unused lyrics, were completely forgotten by White, yet form a pivotal foundation and structure on which the De Stijl album would build from,” the label said of the reissue.

Third Man also recently marked the 50th anniversary of the Stooges’ final performance of their original lineup, Live at Goose Lake: August 8th, 1970. The record arrives just after Rhino’s massive Fun House box set.