The Black Keys

The Black Keys are in my opinion the best two-piece around. What more could any music lover possibly want from a gig than sliding bluesy guitar, drums smashed to pieces with clinical accuracy and rhythm, all knitted together by delectable vocals?

Nothing. Nothing more. That is the answer to that statement.

The only bad thing about them is that they wasted time in their mother’s womb where access to drums and wah wah peddles was not what it should have been with this sort of talent nurturing.

So, to the music. 'Your Touch’, 'The Breaks’ and 'Set You Free’ were inevitable crowd pleasers, though I must admit I am yet to hear (and waiting eagerly for) the sounds of Junior Kimbrough they remodelled in their Chulahoma EP, but seeing as they released 'You’re the One’ this week, I’m sure they can be afforded a little promotional leeway.

Without meaning to douse the evening’s events in any negativity given the performer’s accomplished set, I must use this forum to have a moan. Firstly, the bloke standing in front of me didn’t applaud. Ok, he looked as if he’d had a bad day at JP Morgan, but still. And secondly, some sound technician who spent all his time fine tuning nobs and dials that not even the techies at Yamaha could tell you their actual effect on the human ear failed to notice that the big dial ' recognisable by the word VOLUME ' wasn’t turned up enough. I don’t want to be able to hear people talking at a Black Keys concert. I want to have my inner ear ripped through by blues rock. Rant over. I thank you for your time.

But not to finish on a low, Auerbach and Carney get better and better. They have fine tuned their set now and quite honestly sound better live than on their albums. And their albums are really really good. This is the sign of a class act, and they’re exactly that. I’m off to get a moist towel to clean my screen now.