The Black Keys brought their brand of lo-fi, blues based garage rock to Indianapolis's White River State Park on Friday June 10th, 2011. While I am not sure that this performance would have won over any new converts to the band, judging by the reaction of the faithful that were in attendance that evening, everyone seemed pleased with the show.
Opening the show was Booker T (of Booker T and the MG's fame). It's good to see a legend like Booker T back to recording and touring. It had been 28 years since Booker T had released a studio recording until 2009's Potatoe Hole (with the Drive by Truckers). Booker T gave a solid performance, offering up material from his new album, "The Road to Memphis" as well as material from his days at Stax Records including: "Green Onions", "Take me to the River", "Hold on, I'm Comin" and closing with "Time is Tight".
But this night belonged to The Black Keys. Their most recent album "Brothers" has launched the group into a larger audience than ever before, winning Grammys in 2010 for "Tighten Up" (Best Rock performance by a duo or group with vocal), and Best Alternative Music Album, for "Brothers". ("Brothers" was also Rolling Stone Magazine's #2 Best Albums of 2010.) Not bad for a group that recorded their first two albums in drummer Patrick Carney's basement on an eight track tape recorder.
I admit I came around late to the group, but felt "Brothers" was a solid offering and wanted to see what a Drummer and Guitar Player Duo could do in a live setting. Let's just say their live shows are like the Black Keys music, minimalistic and straight forward, no frills rock and roll. Except for a huge Mirror Ball during "Everlasting Light" and a large grid of lights that spelled out "The Black Keys" during their closing numbers, there were no special effects. Not a lot of audience participation either, just a steam roller hour and a half set I don't think anyone would want to get in the way of.
The playing of the older songs first with just Dan Auerback on guitar and Patrick Carney on drums, then later adding bassist Nick Movshon and Keyboardist Leon Michaels for the newer songs, did away with the awkwardness some artist struggle with of trying to mix the old material with the new. While some of the older die hard fans may have been aghast at the adding of bass and keyboards, true artist grow, evolve, and challenge themselves. Simply put, there's a reason "Brothers" has won the accolades it has.
Highlights of the set included: "Busted", "Everlasting Light", "Howling for You", Booker T sitting in on "Ten Cent Pistol" (My personal favorite of the evening) and "Tighten Up" on which Dan Auerbacmk's voice was stellar.
The question becomes, what do you do with a band that never planed on making it this big? How do you allow them to reach their new audience while remaining true to themselves and their music? I really don't have the answer to that question, and to be honest, for an hour and a half on a beautiful night outdoors in Indianapolis in June with some good company, I really wasn't worried about it, I just enjoyed the show.
