Back in 2001, somewhere in the heart of Akron, Ohio, two childhood friends and college dropouts formed The Black Keys. The band thrived on a low-tech, high-intensity sound that bordered on both blues and rock, bringing new depth to both. Now on their third album, Rubber Factory (recorded in a deserted tire factory), the duo played the Rams Head on Sunday, bringing with them an infectious, gritty energy that breathed new life into an old genre.
You may or may not have heard opener Nathaniel Mayer's 60s hit, "I Want Love and Affection (Not the House Of Correction)." Now, four decades after the soul singer began his music career, he has finally come out with his first full-length album, I Just Want To Be Held.
In his young sixties, Mayer can still prance around the stage in a shiny white suit with the best of them. His crackly voice, perfect for his songs, unfortunately gives way to a robotic growl that is intense enough to scare you off smoking for good.
Nevertheless, his songs, though offering nothing unique or particularly exciting, make for an ass-shakingly, hand-clappingly good time.
While Mayer has a retro appeal, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, the two halves of The Black Keys, blend the old and the new, playing a wide range of songs including hits like "Set You Free," from their second album, Thickfreakness, which gained them attention when it was chosen for the soundtrack for the Jack Black film, School of Rock.
They also revitalized pop songs with the same energy of the rest of their music, covering The Beatles' "She Said, She Said," and "Act Nice and Gentle," by The Kinks.
Returning to their roots, they played older blues songs like "Grown So Ugly" (originally by Robert Pete Williams) but infused them with an intensity and grit that make them sound a little like a really pissed-off version of The White Stripes.
While they wielded only two instruments between them, what they lacked in numbers they more than make up for in sheer energy, with Carney's beating the crap out of his drum kit as he held down the beat and Auerbach's hammering his guitar strings to hell.
Auerbach is nearly as impressive as a singer as he is a guitarist, with all the pain of a seasoned blues veteran in his rusty voice. While The Keys' sound could be called minimalist, it is anything but spare.
In a combination of garage-band energy and the sensibility of the blues, The Black Keys remind us that the blues are at the core of rock. Their energy is raw and pure and translates well in their album, but is even more vital in live performance. While all their albums are worth listening to, seeing them live is a must.
