Few bands have enjoyed the success this year that blues-rock duo The Black Keys have managed. In a year more than others where the press is saying "guitar rock is dead" the band have found themselves in a high position amongst bands.
A year and a week (almost) has passed since 7th album El Camino came in at 6th in the UK Album charts. Since then they've done three nights at the 7,000 capacity Alexandra Palace, sub-headlined Foo Fighters at Reading and Leeds Festivals and have returned with a six date arena run.
This is not quite the level they hit in the USA, where their tour included a 35 date arena headline tour with Arctic Monkeys as support, a headline slot at Coachella and five Grammy Awards nominations, but it is nevertheless very impressive. Now back in Europe they are playing even bigger slots than ever before, as they bring their show to the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena.
Such arenas are normally the haunts of the major names - Mumford & Sons were bringing their folk stylings to the venue the previous evening, while the likes of The Killers, The Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams have all recently been playing on the same stage.
There is certainly a strut in the step of singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney as they stride onto the stage looking to wow the crowd with their potent brand of bluesy-rock.
But straight from the off something just doesn't feel right. While Hyde Park is the London venue most notorious for having terrible acoustics, there feels like something missing from the acoustics for the bulk of the show.
Although they are a duo on record, The Black Keys are doubled live with the addition of a bass guitarist and a keyboard player, but for the bulk of the evening the bass is barely audible. This feels less of a problem when they walk off for a three song interlude, allowing Auerbach and Carney to jam it out amongst themselves like the old days.
The poor acoustics and slightly sleepy crowd means the show takes a few numbers to warm up. It takes third song Run Right Back to really wake the crowd up, but at this point the crowd begin to get up and get dancing.
The one-two of Dead And Gone and super hit Gold On The Ceiling really got the crowd bouncing, as their glossy poppier aspects work where the others struggled to fill the room. But it's the songs where the pair play by themselves which thrive better. With less instruments being fed through the speakers the songs have room to fill up the speakers, allowing a clearer and louder guitar to work with the drums.
In terms of the set, these three are in the minority. Only three other songs in the set aside from this portion do not come from either El Camino or preceding album Brothers, and even then they all come from 2008's Attack & Release - their first collobaration with El Camino producer Danger Mouse.
A lot of the songs follow the blues riff-led rock diagram, with the exceptions naturally proving the interesting exception. This includes the lovely ballad Little Black Submarines and the groove-based Tighten Up - both of which provide expert highlights in the cannon.
Tighten Up backs onto the heavy riff confection of Lonely Boy which gets the loudest cheers of the night. The song is nominated for the lucrative Grammy award for Record of the Year and it certainly works with a delightful riff and a great chorus.
This misleading "goodnight" means people leave rather than sticking around for when the band emerge to play an encore. The encore however sees a delightful part to the show with two mirrorballs - one positioned on the stage and one above the mixing desk - emerging, as the lights revolve around the arena during Everlasting Light.
A final run through of I Got Mine finishes things off with a flourish after a puzzling evening. While the band certainly look a good fit for the arena circuit and a number of their songs work, better acoustics would have helped the good vibes reach the back of the arena and avoided the disappointing muffled sound that clattered so much of the evening.
3/5
The support band for the evening was The Maccabees, who are also rising stars of the rock world. Their third album Given To The Wild went down a treat amongst the indie crowd and the South Londoners turned up on their home cities' biggest stage. They provided a pretty decent slot combining the darker atmospheric recordings of their earlier albums with the sprightly indie of earlier efforts, even if they also struggled somewhat with the acoustics of the venue.
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