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Duo performs fan favorites, tunes from 'Attack & Release'
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer
Published on Friday, May 09, 2008
West Akron blues-rock duo the Black Keys is riding the wave of glowing press and sold-out shows that has followed the release of its fifth album, Attack & Release, which debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard charts.
Befitting the band's rising profile, online portal MySpace enlisted the pair to perform as part of its series of ''secret shows'' (http://www.myspace.com/secretshows) Wednesday night at the Beachland in Cleveland.
As secrets go, it wasn't very well kept, as many fans were turned away at the door; fewer then 200 people gathered in the cozy tavern at the Beachland, where the band played its first show a decade ago. The older and wiser duo performed a high-energy, loose, hour-plus set that featured about half of the new album alongside a healthy heaping of fan favorites from the growing back catalog.
Attack & Release was recorded with hip producer Danger Mouse, and it is the band's most elaborately arranged and recorded album, begging the question of how some of the tunes would translate to the onstage two-man setup. The question was answered immediately with the set-opening Same Old Thing, which on record sounds a bit flat, due in part to some mechanized percussion. In the live version, drummer Patrick Carney pushed the groove, giving it the blues-rock swing it lacked in the studio. Several other new tunes also fared well in their stripped-down versions, such as the single Strange Times and Oceans & Streams.
As with many bands that make their name on the road, the Black Keys often embellish older, familiar tunes for the stage, inserting dramatic breakdowns and drops in dynamics only to build to incendiary climaxes in all the right places.
Guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach, sporting long hair and a full beard that made him look like Grizzly Adams' guitar-slinging son, hopped, swooned and swayed to the music coming out of his fingers and throat. Though he flubbed a few notes, he seemed more comfortable displaying his lead guitar skills. On a rearranged Stackshot Billy, Auerbach unleashed a searing fuzzed-out solo, and the band followed it with a version of Busted that felt like a sonic gutpunch.
The only surprise of the set was a faithful cover of Captain Beefheart's old R&B ballad I'm Glad, which featured a wonderfully soulful vocal from Auerbach. (The band recorded the song a few days ago and it's posted at http://www.myspace.com/theblackkeys.)
The duo is unlikely to play in Northeast Ohio again until the fall. So for local fans, the ''special secret show'' may not have been much of a secret, but both MySpace and the Black Keys delivered on the ''special.''
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
West Akron blues-rock duo the Black Keys is riding the wave of glowing press and sold-out shows that has followed the release of its fifth album, Attack & Release, which debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard charts.
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