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THE BLACK KEYS SETLIST
I Got Mine Encore: THE VELVETEERS SETLIST Beauty Queens THE BLACK KEYS TOUR DATES
Aug. 26 Saint Louis, MO Evolution Festival 2023
Aug. 27 Lincoln, NE Pinewood Bowl Theater Sep. 16 Louisville, KY Bourbon & Beyond 2023 Sep. 22 St. Augustine, FL Sing Out Loud Festival 2023 Nov. 17-19 México, Mexico Corona Capital 2023 Nov. 20 San Pedro Garza García, Mexico Showcenter Complex THE VELVETEERS TOUR DATES
AUG 27 Pinewood Bowl Amphitheater Lincoln, NE
SEP 8 Endless Sunshine Denver, CO SEP 11 The Basement East Nashville, TN SEP 13 9:30 Club Washington, D.C. SEP 14 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA SEP 15 Gramercy Theatre New York, NY SEP 16 Higher Ground South Burlington, VT SEP 18 Union Transfer Philadelphia, PA SEP 20 House of Blues Cleveland, OH SEP 21 Royal Oak Music Theatre Royal Oak, MI SEP 22 Crusens Peoria, IL SEP 23 The Rave Milwaukee, WI SEP 25 House of Blues Chicago, IL SEP 26 Wooly's Des Moines, IA SEP 29 The Vanguard Tulsa, OK OCT 1 Crescent Ballroom Phoenix, AZ OCT 2 Troubadour West Hollywood, CA OCT 3 August Hall San Francisco, CA OCT 5 Showbox SoDo Seattle, WA OCT 6 Domino Room Bend, OR OCT 7 Club Casino Crown Room Crystal Bay, NV OCT 9 The ELM Bozeman, MT OCT 10 Metro Music Hall Salt Lake City, UT OCT 14 Red Flag St. Louis, MO Read More
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As hot as a boiling over juke joint--
The August Midwest heat wave that kept temps in the mid 90’s long after sundown continued, turning the outdoor confines of Starlight Theatre in Kansas City into a humid blues shack as Akron, OH duo The Black Keys made a stop on their continuing Dropout Boogie Tour.
To start things off, Boulder CO band The Velveteers were determined to make the large outdoor venue feel more like a small club with a primal indie rock sound that, like the headliners, sounds much bigger than coming from just three people. They’re out in support of 2021’s Nightmare Daydream (on Easy Eye Sounds, Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach’s custom label) and the big sound can be attributed to dual drummers Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig and the wails and sharp riffs of singer/ baritone guitarist Demi Demitro.
The band has been around almost a decade, and the tightness of their heavy, crunchy sound reflects that. They entered in a dense cloud of fog that lingered for several songs, no thanks to the high dew point and humidity in the air onto a set decorated with random alabaster store mannequins surrounding the trio.
Set highlights included their first-ever single, “Charmer and the Snake”, drummer Fig jumping into the crowd with a floor tom drum to engage the audience by playing from one of the front aisles, and their set-closing newest song, “World of Colors” which started gently enough to lull one in, before a keyboard drone and Demitro’s revved-up riffs turned it into a take-no-prisoners romp. As good as The Velveteers were, they would be bonkers headlining a small club, and we can’t wait to see them again.
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It’s been over two decades now since Akron childhood friends Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney started in suburban basements, eventually graduating to arenas and amphitheaters and now, their latest release and eleventh studio album, the Grammy-nominated Dropout Boogie. This follows 2021’s Delta Kream, an album filled with covers from their direct influences, notably Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside.
Their headlining set, clocking in just over ninety-minutes, was full of smart and simply effective drumming from Carney and riff memorable guitar work from Auerbach, with a setlist reminding everyone how many familiar songs they’ve amassed over these twenty years.
The live band expanded the duo by three times the size, making for a big sound done without overdubs or studio tricks, and like the opener, between song chatter was kept to a minimum other than polite “thank you’s”, letting the music do most of the talking.
After a triple threat of hits- “Gold on the Ceiling”, “Your Touch”, and “Tighten Up”, Auerbach remarked he wanted to “take us down to the basement” for their cover of “Have Love, Will Travel” a 1959 song featured way back on a 2003 record by the pair, and penned by the same author as classic single, “Louie, Louie”. The band has never been afraid to wear their influences plainly on their sleeves, and followed with another cover, the Kimbrough version of blues staple, “Crawling Kingsnake”.
2019’s “Lo/Hi” stood nicely next to “Heavy Soul”, one of the duo’s earliest tracks, dating back to 2002, and 2010’s “Howlin for You” had people singing, make that howling along, as well as on “Fever” and even “Your Team is Looking Good” from the newest album. Auerbach’s solos throughout had formidable muscle but were still performed humbly and not in a grandstanding manner.
The surprise inclusion of 2010’s deep cut “Ten Cent Pistol”, pleased the most diehard fans, an organ-anchored blues number detailing a face scarring of a cheating husband with homemade acid by an irate wife. The main set would end appropriately with “She’s Long Gone” and Auerbach singing, “Long gone, like Moses through the corn, rock on” as a farewell message, before he, Carney, and band departed the stage.
The two-song encore began with Auerbach acoustic on 2011’s descending “Little Black Submarines”, and the crowd singing along to the anguished chorus of “a broken heart is blind” before rhythms got completely danceable one last time with “Lonely Boy” and numerous in the crowd doing their own version from their seat, of the dancing featured in the basic but unforgettable music video.
Twenty years on, the “Dropout Boogie” blues-rock appeal of The Black Keys continues to grow as they further meld a modern edge to traditional Memphis and Delta Blues, made more authentic on this night (for better or worse) by the extreme heat and humidity that one usually associates with the authentic music played in some small backwoods cabin, down a lost road.
(Click on any image to enlarge and see in full)
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| john c ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ X / Twitter.com |
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