The Black Keys with Arctic Monkees – Concert Review

Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach are The Black Keys –  live in Toronto Mach 14 2012

March 14 2012 – The Black Keys assault of our fair city continued tonight. This is the second of three times that the Black Keys visit Toronto in the span of roughly a year (first time was July 7 2011 at the Molson Amphitheater, and the next time will be August 4th 2012 again at the Amphitheater again). There is a risk of overexposure doing so many tours in such a short time but the Black Keys are on a major high right now. They are media darlings (publications like The New York Times are drooling over them, and even the Wall Street Journal is praising their gigs). They have been around for 11 years and have released 7 albums including the Grammy winning Brothers and their latest El Camino. Even more importantly than all that they placed number 7 on our own special T-MAK World Top 10 Albums of 2011 (how can we resist putting that in there!)

The Black Keys take over the toilet entrance at the ACC

We are big fans of The Black Keys sound which is as close to Led Zeppelin that anything created in 2012 can be. Hard hitting, sweaty and dirty grungy blues made possible by 2 dudes from Ohio. All their albums are excellent examples of the guitar heavy deep south blues sound, with Brothers being our favorite. The last time we say The Keys was at the previously mentioned date last year at the Molson Amphitheater. The concert was ok (yes just ok) but did not blow us away. Perhaps it was the audience which seemed more of a typical pop concert crowd, or the fact that The Black Keys only played for 90 minutes, or the fact that it was a little too minimalistic for an amphitheater show. Nonetheless we were very excited to give them another chance to change our mind about their live experience as their latest tour is their first arena tour. There is no doubt their music is absolutely phenomenal and their meteoric rise to the top of the music industry is indicative that people are starting to appreciate this style of music again. One of my favorite quotes is from Patrick Carney (the drummer of The Black Keys) in Rolling Stone magazine. When asked why he thinks rock is ailing these days he replied:

“Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world,” he says, blowing cigarette smoke out the window of his rented East Village loft a few days before the band heads to L.A. “So they became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit – therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world. Fuck that! Rock & roll is the music I feel the most passionately about, and I don’t like to see it fucking ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous shit. When people start lumping us into that kind of shit, it’s like, ‘Fuck you,’ honestly.”

Tonight’s show at the Air Canada Center was totally sold out and there was a definite buzz as one approached the arena. The same hipster crowd that flocked the Amphitheater last summer were out in full force. The beer stands were doing great business, as were the merchandise stands and an insane number of people were walking around the ACC last night with some sort of a Black Keys t-shirt.

The Arctic Monkeys opened the show at precisely 8pm to an almost empty venue and played a one hour set comprised of 16 songs (that can be seen below). The British band from Sheffield was a great opener to see and they seemed to be giving it their all.

Arctic Monkey in Toronto March 14 2012

Unfortunately the crowd doesn’t seem very interested in watching them and nobody is standing for the band (except for the people on the General Admission floors that are camping out for a good spot for the headliners). One of the Arctic Monkeys claim to fame is that they are the band who held the record for fastest selling debut album in Britain (until Susan Boyle beat that record in 2009). Overall they rocked and really set the tone for the intermission (or shall I say beer run). The songs they played are as follows:

After the intermission we see The Black Keys take the stage at 9:30pm on the dot. Of note is that it is not a duo on stage, but there are two additional musicians up there. Bassist Gus Seyffert and Guitarist/Keyboardist John Wood were joining Dan Auerbach (Vocals/Guitar)and Patrick Carney (Drums) on this tour and contributed to most of the set. This show is sold out but oddly enough the general admission floors are 2/3’s empty – not sure why they didn’t sell more tickets down there, but without a doubt every seat in the place is occupied.

The Black Keys

The Black Keys start off with a sped up version of “Howlin’ For You” followed by a very strong “Next Girl“. The band penetrates the mass of humanity in front of them with an aural assault and the crowd responds with incredible energy for “Thickfreakness”. Lighters come out in mass for “Little Black Submarine” and a massive sing along ensues – now we’re talking! Rounding off the main set are “10 Cent Pistol”, “Tighten Up” and “Lonely Boy” which really proved that The Black Keys are on the path of megastardom like U2 and Led Zeppelin before them. The encore set of “Everlasting Light“, “Long Gone” and “I Got Mine” concludes the music for the night with an exclamation mark (accompanied by two mega disco balls illuminating the arena) and we see THE BLACK KEYS in big bright light bulbs illuminating the back of the stage (just like Led Zeppelin used to end their gigs).

The Black Keys

11:00 pm on the dot (yes just 90 minutes after they started) – the 85 minute musical journey ends. I really do not understand why The Black Keys shows are so short – fans expect 2 hour plus shows and a band at the peak of their career should be delivering the goods. Dave Grohl kicked off a recent Foo Fighters concert by saying “We don’t play those f****n’ two hour shows your favorite band plays… Let’s try and get it to three tonight.” Dave clearly wasn’t talking about The Black Keys because they don’t even come close to two hours.

VERDICT: Clearly Dan and Patrick have mastered arenas with ease and delivered an incredible performance of raw guitar driven blues. Incredible show. Just give us more songs next time guys. Please!

The Black Keys

Tonight’s setlist was as follows:

Author: T-Mak