Black Keys - Shepherds Bush Empire, 27/2/2007

  by Sarah Mwangi

published: 5 / 3 / 2007

intro

At the Shepherds Bush Empire in London, new writer Sarah Mwangi finds much of American blues duo the Black Keys' passion stolen by their insistent touring schedule

One of the best things about the Black Keys live is witnessing the vocals of a 40’s bluesman come out of Dan Auerbach’s humble 5’8” frame. Listening to any of the Black Keys albums, his uncanny resemblance to the rattle and growl of those who have gone before him is remarkable, but on stage that initial astonishment resurfaces. Alongside his rusty blues vocals, Auerbach came on stage armed with an ability to revive the living legends of the genre with his blistering guitar, while his partner in crime, Patrick Carney, fiercely hammered onto his drum set. The Keys started the night off with Auerbach sliding his steel bottleneck across his guitar; this was greeted with rapturous applause as loyal fans recognised it as the intro to ‘Thickfreakness’. Carney soon joined in a manic fashion, beating the life back into his drum skins. Not much for talk, they played virtually undisturbed by for an hour. Unafraid to slip away from their characteristic gritty blues-rock, they slowed the pace down to include two songs from their latest album, ‘Magic Potion’, melting ‘You’re The One’ and ‘The Flame’ together into a lengthy six minute plus song. Auerbach sung of his aching heart with a maturity only whiskey and women can bring as Carney crept in with his lightest drumming of the night. Surprisingly the Shepherd’s Bush Empire wasn’t shaking as much as it should have been at a sold-out rock concert. The audience was oddly tame. Then out of nowhere, trickles of energy seemed to drop from the ceiling and ignite the dormant fires in the rowdy mosh-pit enthusiasts, or that could have been the cracked paint, but whatever it was a flood of energy filled the room. If it wasn’t for that upsurge of energy, the night would have ended quite gently. As a result of it, however, an untameable intensity between each side of the barrier that separated the band and the audience bounced feverishly back and forth. Unquestionably, the Keys aren’t very charismatic on stage, but they do make up for that with their ferocious take on the blues. This time, however, they couldn’t escape the fact that they lacked new material; their set relied too much on rehashed songs from their last London show of five months ago. Sadly, the insistent touring that saw them back in UK so soon after their last visit may have stolen the passion of their live performance, making it job like and routine. The only remedy is for them to take a break and come back in a year or two later with the brazen blues they do so well.

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