Photos by Neil Van
On what was the first day of school for many Torontonians, The Black Keys pulled up a busful of bluesy garage rock to the learning annex known as Budweiser Stage for their Dropout Boogie tour.
When it comes to artists who have figuratively gone from kindergarten to doctorates in music acumen in say the last 20 years, the dean’s list of those who can claim to be as educated as Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney gets awfully short in a hurry. Class was definitely in session the night of September 6th, and like good teachers the dynamic duo know how to grab the attention of students from the get-go. I’m not big on the term “certified bangers”, but Akron Ohio’s favourite sons have plenty of them to spare and they’re not afraid to cram them all into a tight set that causes capacity crowds to spontaneously dance as if they were at the world’s biggest sock hop.
The first half hour might as well have been a best of alternative radio hits since 2010 as the ’Keys busted out in successive order “Howlin’ for You”, “Tighten Up”, current single “It Ain’t Over” and “Gold on the Ceiling” to everyone’s delight. Because of how they’ve been consistently rocking since the turn of the new millennium, a good deal of their fanbase are now parents who will admittedly be “feelin’ it” the next day – This may explain why there were seats in the regular pit area.
Looking his best “Smoking in the Boys’ Room” cool wearing sunglasses at night, Dan Auerbach is obviously confident enough in his and brother-in-arm Carney’s ability to please that they feel they can insert a string of slowed-down blues jams from early pandemic album release Delta Kream. The music purist in me loved it; the majority of attendees seemed to stay standing for first song “Stay All Night”, but the beauty and appreciation of history The Black Keys were trying to conjure simply got lost in a spacious amphitheatre. The reaction I feel would have been so much different in a cozier environment such as the Danforth Music Hall when Auerbach brought his Easy Eye Sound Revue there in 2018.
I felt bad for openers Band of Horses, good ol’ Southern boys whose workmanlike indie rock should have gone over great with the slightly older-skewing audience. Despite playing swooning fave “No One’s Gonna Love You”, I found they were mostly met with a tepid response that screamed “We need to save our energy, can’t have our kids miss their second day of school because we stayed up late.” By the time the band got to “Is There a Ghost”, a few people were out of their seats and swaying. Singer Ben Bridwell humbly thanked us for the warm hospitality and good vibes. See, just because it’s past Labour Day doesn’t mean summer’s over here!
I was also hoping to catch Early James who I’ve heard good things about…but I didn’t get to Bud Stage early enough.
I’ll stay away from how drummer Patrick Carney may be only second these days in jerkiness behind Win Butler of Arcade Fire. For those who may not know, it was found out that he cheated on his wife of only a handful of years Michelle Branch. Suffice to say that after transporting us to the Mississippi and back, Carney’s drum pounding and Auerbach’s prowess on the guitar brought things home strongly during the encore with “Little Black Submarines” and “Lonely Boy”.
The Black Keys are a ways away from being relegated to the casino circuit, although I for one would be very open to a scaled-down, blues-heavy performance like the taste we got in Toronto. I’d even skip school to see it!
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Be sure to check out Live Nation Ontario to see all of the other great acts that they will be bringing to Toronto this year.
