The O2 Wireless Festival began its four-day residency in Hyde Park yesterday with the first major British performance by the White Stripes for two years. The duo of Jack White and Meg White re-established themselves with a performance of renewed vigour. The period since their last album – the experimental, keyboard-dominated Get Behind Me Satan – was released in 2005 has been one of uncertainty and upheaval, with Jack recording and touring with his “other” group, the Raconteurs.

Now, ten years after they started in Detroit, the White Stripes are back at the peak of their game. Their new album, Icky Thump, released on Monday, marks a confident return to the guitar-driven, blues-rock for which they are best loved. And their show in Hyde Park was a ballsy and unconstrained demonstration of their peculiarly minimalist art.

As usual they had a neat visual tag to go with the performance. Not only was all their backline equipment painted red, but the images on the screens at the side of the stage were passed through a red filter. This blood-coloured mist added a visceral intensity as darkness fell.

After an initial outburst of Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground and Hotel Yorba, the duo piled into the new material. The pulverising, Zeppelin-flavoured riff of the title track of the new album was followed by I’m Slowly Turning Into You, a harsh, primitive blast of grunge-blues as formidable as anything in the band’s repertoire of old hits.

Jack, whose musicianship seems to have improved since his stint with the Raconteurs, sang in his high, bluesy squeak and played some magnificent slide guitar on Death Letter, while even Meg’s remedial drum technique sounded punchier than it used to. She sang her party piece, Cold Cold Night, in a faltering voice before returning to the kit to unleash a thunderous Ball And Biscuit. The set seemed to fly past, and even a long stretch of encores including Blue Orchid, We’re Going to be Friends and a resurgent Seven Nation Army didn’t seem quite enough.

They were preceded on the main stage by Queens of the Stone Age, the heavy-rock band from Palm Desert, California, led by the singer and guitarist Josh Homme. A big bruiser of a guy, Homme loomed from the stage singing in an incongruous falsetto while the band cranked out the thuggish riffs of songs, both new and old.

Over in the Xfm tent the Thrills, from Dublin, wooed the crowd with a mixture of lovely indie-rock tunes from their forthcoming album, Teenager, and rousing versions of old favourites including One Horse Town, a song that was tuned into a more traditional festival mood.

*The White Stripes play tonight at the O2 Wireless Festival, Harewood House, Leed; the festival continues in Hyde Park with Faithless tonight, Daft Punk tomorrow and Kaiser Chiefs on Sunday

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