It was pretty rainy in Nashville last Thursday night, so the quiet industrial section of town that houses Jack White's “Third Man Records” was even spookier than usual. And the walk from my car to the studio – past the Rescue Mission, in earshot of the cargo train crawling through the intersection, under the blanket of flashing blue police lights – was wetter.

I sauntered up to the main entrance – a cozy storefront lined with LP's and EP's from Jack's various bands and Third Man artists. A couple hours later, dozens of people would be lined up outside here, braving the conditions for the right to pay $20 for a special edition, black-and-blue vinyl pressing of the concert they'd just heard. But for right now, I was in the wrong place.

The proper entrance to the concert, I learned, was around back – down the steps, through the alley that separated the studio from a seedy construction site, and past a nondescript metal door. Once I arrived at the door, I did what about 100 other people did that night: I walked into Jack White's studio.

The crowd was sizable, but fit comfortably within the walls of a room that seemed like it was usually used for vocals and lounging. Within a few minutes, Jack was up on the makeshift stage, welcoming the audience to the first installment of his in-studio concert series. The project, designed to give Third Man artists an intimate venue and music fans of all ages a genuine (and free) rock and roll experience (complete with special-edition vinyl and “delicious virgin drinks” at the end), would be kicked off momentarily by the Dex Romweber Duo. But first, a few words from Jack. “Welcome,” he said. “This is my home.” He fiddled with his guitar. “I'm going to do something you're not supposed to do,” he warned. Then he started into a haunting cover of a song written by the band that was about play.

With a couple more pleasantries after the song was finished, Jack introduced the Duo – Dex on the guitar, sister Sara on the drums. Then he shuffled right past me as he disappeared into the audience, happy to be a fan for a few minutes.

It's a good thing that the band, like the White Stripes, is a guitar and drums duo, because it's unlikely that anyone or anything else could have fit onto that platform. As it was, the stage was just big enough to contain Dex and Sara. But it couldn't come anywhere close to containing their sound.

For about an hour, the duo ripped through high octane blues vignettes – the kind that you can envision a 17-year-old Jack White grooving along to, yelling This is where it's at, man! Dex thrashed his cheap-looking, great-sounding guitar with reckless abandon, while Sara absolutely demolished her drumset, somehow managing to maintain the power, simplicity, and pure bluesiness of a driving kick-bass-hi-hat-combo while diversifying the sound with an orchestra of rhythms and pops. I had read on the Third Man website that “Dex has long been a force for the cause of rock and roll,” but I hadn't realized what an understatement it was.

Dex, who looks a bit like a mix between James Dean and Rex Ryan, bantered frequently with the audience, which contained a healthy mix of Music Row types, college students, Stripes enthusiasts, and assorted Nashvillians just pumped as hell to see Dex Romweber. For a room of this size, the microphone was more of a novelty than a necessity. “Wanna hear a joke?” he asked about midway through the set. He dilly-dallied for a bit, so someone in the audience took the onus upon himself and shouted, “What's the best thing about the circus?” Dex offered that he didn't know. “It's in-tents!”

After one particularly rockin' number, Dex announced that one of his strings broke. “Jack, I might need to borrow a guitar.” The audience chuckled, Sara put out a cigarette on her cymbal, and Dex played the next song with five strings. Halfway through, Jack ambled onto the stage with a guitar. He tripped a bit over an amp before leaning the guitar up against the wall behind Dex.

Jack slinked back into the crowd. This, I thought to myself, was music. And it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.