THE BLACK KEYS – Live at Bristol Carling Academy – November 17 2008

THE BLACK KEYS – Live at Bristol Carling Academy – November 17 2008
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I’ve never been asked to take my gum out on the way into a venue before, though I guess there’s a first time for everything - anyway – that is precisely what happened when I got to the doors of this one. I put another piece in on the inside of course – (remember that as it’ll be important later on) and hoped that it didn’t bode badly for the evening – though I had my doubts when the first support act came on. A trio, competent but dull, they were leavened only by the size of the drummer’s beard (about the size of a small raccoon) and guitarist who bore a passing resemblance to Thomas Chong and who looked like he’d just wandered in off the Haight Ashbury circa nineteen sixty eight. The second support (whose band name again eluded me) were a charismatic, skilled and obviously mental Kiwi/ Aussie combo who bonded well with the crowd but were generally strangers to the conventional song structure which the crowd so clearly wanted.

Still, 'giving them what they want' is both Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney’s middle name - arriving as they did with little fanfare and pummelling the crowd with a welter of mammoth blues riffs and feedback. After a couple of tracks Auerbach mumbled “I’m Dan and this is Patrick,” – a man of few words then – though in comparison to Carney (who, as I recall said nothing for the entire gig and is apparently a man of no words) he was a conversational titan. Here are two men, I thought, who...READ COMPLETE ARTICLE AND SEE MORE PICS AT MONKEYBOXING.COM