Being in a power trio ain’t easy. With three guys, you gotta do the lifting of four or five. And you gotta do it with, well, power. So being a power duo should be nearly impossible. Yet somehow the Black Keys’ live show manages to generate the same feel as a classic set from Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The Black Keys have no business competing as a twosome with the world’s greatest threesomes. Singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach’s lyrics are simple and repetitive, drummer Patrick Carney’s kit is half the size of Ginger Baker’s, and new album “Attack & Release” is filled with keyboards, woodwinds and second guitar parts (not easy songs to pull off live). But there they were Saturday, in front of a rabid, youthful capacity Orpheum crowd, absolutely killing it.
So how do they do it? How do they do nothing new with less and make it work?
The Keys attacked the set the old-fashion way. They switched up
the tempo at all the right times, moved from quiet to deafening with well-placed crescendos and gave each other plenty of space, letting the audience to lose itself briefly in the drums or guitar. Oh yeah, and Auerbach also is a stoned-out, fuzzed-out Zen master of the rock riff.
In the middle of the hour-plus set, right as things threatened to lapse into a sameness, the Akron, Ohio, act broke into tender ballad “You’re the One.” Against the backdrop of so much heavy blues, the spot of tenderness buoyed the set. But before anyone got mellow, the Keys were into new single “Strange Times” and its sped-up Sabbath opening riff and psychedelic change. Then came a manic version of “Your Touch” with stops and starts, the drums cutting in and out, giving Auerbach’s guitar even more force.
All night long, using songs from all five of their albums, the Keys put together similar combinations. The second-best one-two-three punch of the night being when they rushed through the already rushed rocker “Remember When (Side B),” then lulled the crowd with the sweet soul of obscure Captain Beefheart cover “I’m Glad,” then got lost in feedback of “I Got Mine.”
Maybe it’s easier to have that extra guy, maybe it’s easier to put together a set if you embrace post-Woodstock rock, but it’s not necessary. Well, at least if you’re the Black Keys it’s not.
Fellow Ohio retro rockers the Buffalo Killers opened up. A clearly talented power trio, the band suffered through an (unintentional) muddy mix and had trouble finding the right sound.
