For only two people, Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney of Akron’s Black Keys make a powerful lot of noise, and they play as if their lives depended on the performance. Auerbach wrenches distorted wails out of his guitar, while Carney screws up his face like he’s bench-pressing 200 lbs. and beats those drums furiously. Their roadhouse blues/rock songs paint all the shades of love and heartbreak that a man and woman can experience.

Dan Auerbach

The Black Keys were not originally on my Coachella schedule, so I had not listened to many of their songs except for their latest album, Attack and Release. The first seven songs in their set were from earlier albums, and I was thinking that the songs were all beginning to sound the same until they hit one I knew, “Psychotic Girl.” Auerbach moans and slurs his lyrics, which is appropriate for the blues, but it doesn’t help to identify songs. Nevertheless, I think I have an accurate setlist.

Checking around the internet for information, since I didn’t know very much about them, I see that the new album, produced by Brian Burton, better known as Danger Mouse, is considered a breakthrough for the Keys, and I can verify that a difference came through in the live set.

Pat Carney

Click to embiggen thumbnails

These live tracks are from an NPR Live Performance at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC last year.

Setlist:
1. ThickFreakness
– (not Till I Get My Way)
2. Girl Is On My Mind
3. 10 AM Automatic ?
4. Set You Free
5. The Breaks
6. Stack Shot Billy
7. Busted
8. Psychotic Girl
9. Strange Times
10. Same Old Thing
11. I Got Mine

MySpace | Website | Label: Independent | BUY
Show Schedule: Columbus OH, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Louisville KY, Commerce City CO, Jersey City

Filed under: Coachella 2009, Dan Auerbach, Pat Carney, the Black Keys

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