Sat 9/6 @ 8PM
There isn’t a whole lot more to say about the Black Keys to northeast Ohioans, who have followed them since the beginning.. Although the group’s two members, drummer Patrick Carney and guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach, have moved elsewhere, they grew up in Akron and formed the band there in 2001.
They’re an unlikely group to be headlining the Q. They took their inspiration from the stripped-down backwoods blues ensembles of the Deep South, featuring only percussion-backed guitar as instrumentation. They played the club circuit for years — often very small clubs — before their star started to rise rapidly by the end of the decade. And it’s not like they reworked their south extensively to become more pop/commercial — the audience came to them. They released their eighth album, Turn Blue, in May.
It’s especially gratifying to see them headlining the Q, following a hometown debacle in January 2009 when they played two sold-out nights at the Agora Theatre and a former promotion there stiffed the band for more than $50,000. That promoter is now out of business and no one’s seen him in a while, although many wish they could see him in a courtroom. The Black Keys are continuing to rise.
On tour the Keys are now augmenting themselves with a couple of additional musicians, but don’t look for a major production. The music does the talking.
Tickets are $35-$75. Kentucky quartet Cage the Elephant opens.