Three bands, one town, two nights. Patrick Carney (Drums) and Dan Auerbach (guitar, sing) were performing in one of NYC's most famous underground concert hall, two weeks after their new Cd, Rubber Factory, was released.
The band was preceeded with The Cuts and The National. Froggy's Delight's readers know The National derserves better than a previous; however, no one complained to see their performance in NYC, as they responded The Black Keys' invitation.
The Cuts belongs to these bands which are pleasant, but not extraordinary. Five players on stage, it is a lot, especially compared to the Black Keys. Anyway, the played in front of 30 persons, the New Yorkers seem to avoid the discovering part of the show, and show up better for the main artist. Later, they will claim : "I was at The Cuts' concert before the Black Keys, and it was incredible". Nervermind. The Cuts performed a nice concert, though. Their music is based on a background melody, played by the keyboard, and an energic melody performed by the guitar. Unfortunately, the singer's voice is weak and sometimes off-tune. Nice concert but nothing to keep in mind.
When the National entered the stage, the audience left the bar and shown up in the concert hall. 45 minutes during which the band played oldies and new songs. Many new songs, and some of them are not on The Cherry Tree Ep, which augurs a new release soon. As usual, the songs were calm then turned to a strechted atmosphere. Some of them, such as "Murder me Rachel" were longer than ever, whith a long instrumental period, close to instrumental post-rock bands, such as Manitoba.
The audience appreciated, but didn't ask for a bis. The set was predetermined, and the timing was well respected, which seems to be common in the USA. As well, people show up only for whom they wanna know, explaining why The Cuts played in front of an empty room.
The hall was crowded for The Black Keys second performance, here in NYC. Playing two consecutive evenings is not common for a recent band, and they thanks the staff at the Bowery Ballroom fro that. Patrick took place behind his drums ; Dan touched the strings of his stranged and customized guitar. As far, the dirty and heavy atmosphere was already set. The guitar plays both the bass and the melody. They played songs from Rubber Factory, their third album, from Thickfreakness, and older songs.
One would say the Black Keys music is repetitive, that there are not any differences from a song to an other. It is not false, but nobody complained because the most important in their music is the atmosphere they create. It is like being in Louisiana, in a small town, waiting for being served at a gaz station. It is hot, and the radio produces an imperfect sounds, inspired from the old blues.
One could also say that they need a bass guitar. As they are compared to the White Stripes because there is only drums and a guitar (such as the Kills, The Raveonettes...), people think they are sharing their lacks. The Black Keys does not have the same ambition, and no bass guitar is lacking. For the moment.
"We are the Blacks", on we embody the south american music.
