We are not supposed to describe the Raconteurs as Jack White’s band, let alone Jack White’s side project from the White Stripes. At the first of two nights at Brixton it was White’s sparring partner from Detroit, the singer and guitarist Brendan Benson, who introduced us to the members of the group. And it was Benson who took the lead vocal in the opening number, Intimate Secretary — for the first verse, at any rate. But despite the scrupulous sharing of singing, songwriting and guitar-playing duties between the two principals, it was White who remained, from first to last, the commanding presence on stage.

It was interesting to watch him function within the context of a “proper” band. Relieved of the burden of having to do everything except nail down the beat, he played the role of a more traditional guitar hero with relaxed bravado. He could have been Pete Townshend, chopping out the opening power chords of Hands. Next thing, he and Benson strapped on big acoustic guitars for the country-rock ballad Together, followed by an antiquated bluegrass song called The Christian Life, played in the style of the recording by the late Gram Parsons.

Benson sang in a relaxed tenor and played with a low-key polish. But his performance was overshadowed by the far brighter intensity of White’s contribution. Spurring on the other musicians, while lunging and leaping between microphones, White supplied a constant visual focus and dramatic impetus to the performance. The defining moment was an epic version of the Sonny Bono song Bang Bang (originally a hit for Cher), which White sang in a demented screech, while the band negotiated a comically overwrought, dead-slow arrangement that was pure White Stripes.

Despite unusual cover versions, and the occasionally eccentric appeal of their own songs, it was a surprisingly old-fashioned, guitar-band show — a nimbler, New Wave version of what you might expect from, say, the Black Crowes. Nothing wrong with that, and it was clear that audience and band alike were enjoying themselves during a lengthy sequence of encores including their biggest hit, Steady, As She Goes, and a final, slow-blues wig out on the closing track of their album, Blue Veins. Whether the band develops into more than a welcome break from the day job remains to be seen.

For tour details, go to: www.theraconteurs.com