Black Keys @ the Metro

Chris mentioned The Black Keys to everyone yesterday, and was trying to get folks to go with him to the show. Seeing as how I liked one of Chris’ last recommendations, I decided to go with him and Will to the Metro.

It’s been ages since I’ve been in here. This was my first view of the floor, on walking in.

On stage already was Nathanial Mayer, whose speaking voice was truly something to behold (to say nothing of his singing voice).

His vocal range was pretty incredible. Though I couldn’t find myself *really* getting into his songs, I did enjoy them a good deal. He was trying to stir the crowd up some and, by the end of his set… I think he succeeded.

I mentioned his range, right? I don’t know how old the guy is, but he could get it up there and hit some notes! I really want lungs like that when I get older.

Towards the end of the set, he’s convinced three girls to come on stage and dance. Before this, as he was trying to get volunteers to come up to the stage… he was yelling things out like “throw some women on up here.”

During this song, the main refrain was “Shake what your momma gave ya.” Good stuff.

Though the crowd was lukewarm during the set, Mayer received a great deal of applause at the final song. It’s a bit weird to say, but there seemed to be this massive amount of respect for the man – doing his thing up on stage. Watching him perform, you got the sense that tonight was the most recent performance in a long string of past performances. Partly due to his demeaner, partly due to his voice – the man exuded experience and, most of all, time.

There was a seemingly interminable wait between sets, but when The Black Keys came on stage, there was no question about it. I had heard a particularly slow track at the office yesterday, but they kicked in right away.

I had no idea it was just two guys! The amount of raw power they got was pretty amazing, just the two of them. The guitar was what amazed me the most – taking care of the bass as well as the lead, with the occasional bends and grace notes in between the beats.

The overall sound was… I don’t even know how to adequately describe it. Raw. Gritty. I’m not entirely sure how they rigged up the guitar (Chris had a pretty decent grasp of it that he explained, but I’ve since forgotten)… but the sound! A gutteral crunching. It was a really visceral sound, a deep one.

These guys were super tight. I don’t think I’m doing them justice by sort of vaguely describing their sound. I’m not even sure how you would classify them – hard blues? Something like that.

I couldn’t make out the lyrics all that well, but I found myself constantly drawn back to the sound of the guitar. I tried taking some video, but as you know… my camera gets all funky when there’s a lot of bass in the air. And believe you me, there was a lot of that.

I hope the clip below gives you some taste of what The Black Keys are like. Keep in mind that the audio is off, mostly due to the high volume (and bass). Also, the video clip is probably super freaking loud… so be warned.