This is very late, but I have a concert review: Black Keys
Posted by
con_carne
Oct 19 '12, 15:18
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Really not what we were expecting: and that's a good thing! I saw PMB use "jam band" to describe their Lolla set. This was not the case for us. The Black Keys made a set that seemed very fitting for an arena. Not a roadside juke joint, which is where I think a lot of their music sounds like it would play. The sound was nice and big.
I enjoyed the set a lot. They got a couple of their hits out of the way early on, which is a nice surprise: Gold on the Ceiling (a personal favorite for foot stompin'). They opened with Howlin' For You, which the audience just ate up and sang along with. Very nice, and the singer clearly loved the fact that the audience was already into it. Of course, there were plenty of songs I didn't recognize, but I enjoyed those, too. Definitely a electric bluesy sound.
I'd say a little over half the set was just drums and one guitar, their usual sound on record. Any doubts I had that this spare sound would not translate to the arena were obliterated. The set was tight, they wasted little time, it was not jammy. Virtually no patter and no audience participation prompts. Again, it sounded great. I go to a lot of concerts, but rarely in arenas. Maybe I'm used to crappy sound. ;-) Their sound filled the place, and was good when all the parts came in, too.
Again, we came away thinking this was a lot more arena than expected: not the reason people like the Black Keys. Playing the Staples Center seemed a challenge they rose to and exceeded.
Tegan and Sara opened, another "indie" duo: meh dream pop. They didn't play either of the whole two songs I would have recognized! :) Oh, and we had nosebleed seats: this was no problem! I think the way Staples is designed, the worst seats are still not bad, and you don't feel like you are far away from the band. This is good since, while there were screens, they were mostly not used to show giant versions of the band.
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