Modest Mouse was the opening band we saw - we made it to the show too late to catch any of the set from Shannon and the Clams, mainly because the parking situation around the Erwin Center is freaking horrific. I was excited to see MM - if I've ever seen them before I don't recall it (but part of me feels like I've caught them at ACL before) - and I have a friend who loves them. The music sounded great - I really enjoyed the semi-weirdness of their groove and the three guys all blasting percussion effects into the tunes - but the vocals sounded godawful. Just fully washed out and unintelligible. The guy literally could have been mumbling the word "pineapple" every time he opened his mouth, for all I could tell. Which is too bad, because I'd like to like those guys. Also, at one point I decided to run out for another beverage, and when I came back to my row, the single guy at the end of our row didn't move for me when I walked up with both hands full of drinks. He was straight up asleep. Had to bump his knee with my hand and he sheepishly jumped up. You know the show is scintillating when someone can rack out during it! Anyway, I was bummed about this part of the show.
The Keys played a hell of a good set. They included a handful of tracks from the excellent new album, they included tracks from the old albums like Magic Potion and Thickfreakness, and then they played the hits in between. My favorite part of the night was also my favorite song - "Little Black Submarines" from El Camino - where Auerbach started the track out with an acoustic guitar and then shifted on the fly to bash out the rest of the tune with his electric. So freaking good. I also loved that they played the real version of the song, and not the annoying radio version that cuts out a portion of the acoustic build up at the start, because: (1) I got to lord my knowledge of the song over those around me who expected an earlier shift to electric; and (2) its a better song like that. I also really liked "Lo/Hi" and "Go," played back-to-back during the encore. For the encore, they brought out a huge ass electric chair thing to sit at the back of the stage. Seems odd to just bring that out for the last three songs, but whatever.
As I was getting psyched up for the show over the past week, I got to thinking, yet again, about who the best rock and roll bands are in America right now. Personally, I'd have the Keys near the top of the list, but when I just tried running a search, I see that Billboard would give the crown to Imagine Dragons in 2018, with something called Five Finger Death Punch at #5, so I apparently know nothing at all about rock and roll anymore. I guess that comes from, in large part, the diversification and splintering of the genre, so that now you have 87 different types of music that would all think of themselves as "rock," but I don't want to hear. If these guys are in the same zone as black metal and glam and psych rock and emo, then it's hard to locate things like "best." Whatever, these guys are a great rock and roll band. Shut up, Richard.
Black Keys do a great job of staying relatively close to the originals of the tunes, but slightly different so that you aren't just sitting there listening to the album at home. Also, my wife was semi-amazed at how much Patrick Carney hits his drums, which I found hysterical.
Lots of empty seats in the arena, which I thought was interesting. I snapped up my tickets the second they went on sale, expecting this one would sell out, but I guess I overestimate the draw of classic rock action in today's rap-centered world. And once I realized there were lots of empty spots, I realized that the show could have been at a smaller, better venue, which would have been sweet! Oh well. Good show.
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