black keys concert, warfield theatre, sf
wednesday night we saw the black keys at the warfield theatre here in san francisco, as they tour to promote their new album, “attack & release”. a diversion from the previously raw and somewhat formulaic two-man sound they are known for, the new album is produced by danger mouse. you may know him better as half of gnarls barkley, or that guy who made that weird but totally excellent mash-up of jay z’s “black album” and the beatles’ “white album”. wait, what?
pretty much my thoughts too at first when hearing this odd connection, but it ends up turning out to be a pretty decent album. and i am referring to both the new black keys album and the jay z/beatles “grey album” mashup.
as far as a live show goes, the dudes put on a pretty rocking set for just two guys. i was a little disappointed that a couple of the older tunes from “rubber factory” were loosened up a bit into this sucky sort of “we’ve played this so many times that when we play it now we kinda do these little annoying tempo shifts and retarded tone changes.” Dan Auerbach’s guitar was also partially broken for probably the last 1/4 of the set, but overall it was still an energetic and really, really loud show. at one point on one of the new tracks, the bass was up so high that my chest was vibrating like mad. had i not had in earplugs (i am so old now) i would likely be deaf.
thumbs up!
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