The Beat Surrender

When I reviewed The Black Keys album Attack & Release recently it was only the second album I’d heard by the duo. With my head more readily tuned to blues and rock music over the last year or so though, the time is right for me to potentially become a fully fledged convert.

The one thing in music that I feel usually cements my feelings about a band, is seeing them perform in the flesh, there is something pure and honest about seeing a group or artist recreate the songs their in a room, tent or field for you, unless you happen to be going to see Milli Vanilli of course.

I’ve had some good and bad experiences at gigs that have sometimes changed my mind about a band, going from loving an album to hating them live. In some cases being a bit uncertain on an album, seeing the band live and enjoying the experience, that when you revisit the album it all suddenly makes sense, where it maybe didn’t before.

When I got the chance to pop along and review The Black Keys, I had a fair idea that it was going to cement things either way for me. I didn’t see them being mediocre, they were either going to fall flat in a venue that can be a real graveyard for groups sound wise, or they were going to knock the socks off what turned out to be a near sold out crowd.

We missed support act The Ettes, so by the time we’d taken our place on the balcony (first time ever up there- woo-hoo!) with a couple of beers, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were taking to the stage, which compared to some of the set ups I’d seen was fairly basic, no no elaborate lights or backdrops.

The Black Keys don’t need these added extras though because they are 100% about the music and they do most of their talking tonight through their music, that isn’t to say they aren’t friendly with the crowd, but you don’t get any Jarvis Cocker style anecdotes between songs.

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