BETHLEHEM, Pa. — One could expect the audience at The Black Keys to be filled to the brim with millennials and younger Gen-Xers.
One would be wrong.
Yes, of course, the people who grew up on The Black Keys were there at Musikfest's main Steel Stage on Sunday for the festival's closing night.
But alongside them were plenty of seniors celebrating a sound that drew from their favorite rock classics, and a wealth of younger individuals getting an education on the hypnotic hipster blues rock the band has mastered.
The second-wave garage rock revival outfit drew a diverse crowd with a wealth of indie-rock-meets-crunchy-guitar blues tracks that enamored just about everyone in earshot.
The Akron, Ohio, outfit has been in the game since 2001, skyrocketing from their humble beginnings — they had to mow their landlord’s lawn to finance their tour for their initial full-length disc "The Big Come Up" — to the heights of hits such as “Lonely Boy” and “Tighten Up.”
Colored largely by guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach's raw blues rock influences — including Junior Kimbrough, Howlin’ Wolf, and more — the band channeled an incredible amount of blues-punk energy; rough, crunchy licks; and unconventional, raw drumming that eschews precision.
And you can bet the crowd ate up every bit of it.
'Oh what can I do? Yeah'
As the air cooled and the sky darkened, the concert started with a very 1980s-centric backdrop for WTBK — Akron’s local radio station popping up as the band launched into a library of singles and fan favorites.
Fans were overjoyed for hits such as “Fever” and “I Got Mine,” swaying in place for the latter before the guitars ramped up and the headbanging commenced for a striking end.
"Lo/HI," a hit from "Let’s Rock," used those class-style riffs, which wouldn’t be out of place in a track released half a century or more ago.
But the quick pace and Auerbach’s distinct raw tenor/high baritone make the track all its own.
The somber and spacy “Weight of Love” offered up some trippy guitar noodling and backing vocals dialing back decades, along with a few tranquil keys that build up to a psychedelic trance that kept the audience enamored and moving.
That was nothing compared with the reaction from that crowd upon hearing the first bit of whistling from Auerbach as the band launched into “Tighten Up.”
Everyone danced along and echoed the frontman’s calls of “I wanted love, I needed love/Most of all, most of all/Someone said true love was dead/And I'm bound to fall, bound to fall for you/Oh, what can I do? Yeah,” before the stinging instrumental chorus kicked in.
New tracks and stage becomes electric
New tracks “Man on a Mission” and “No Rain, No Flowers” were welcome additions to the setlist, especially with the former’s sultry vocals carrying the verses before elevating just enough to match the guitar punches over the chorus.
With touches of soul and easy-listening blended into the blues, those entries stood out in a good way, enchanting the fans with a bit of what they really want from the Keys.
After wrapping up “She’s Long Gone” with some down-home, grimy blues bits punctuating Auerbach’s last line encouraging the crowd to “rock on,” some were left feeling a bit cheated.
But after just a few minutes, the band returned for a performance of “Little Black Submarine,” featuring a solo Auerbach on an acoustic guitar, quietly building the track’s front half, which was eerily reminiscent of the start of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”
Once it hit that halfway point, the stage was electric, with the crowd headbanging along and chanting, “But everybody knows/That a broken heart is blind” along with the singer and the pained and bluesy guitar.
A sonic spectacle
And, of course, what performance would it have been without one of the group’s most beloved tracks, the punchy, punkish and charmingly key-laden hit “Lonely Boy.”
“Oh-oh, oh-oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting” could likely have been heard from a mile away from the stage, what with the whole venue chanting along energetically to a bursting point as the band built up those guitars and drums again to a crashing end.
The following fireworks might not have even been necessary for those in attendance: They saw more than enough of a sonic spectacle that night.
Openers The Velveteers warmed up the crowd with a slew of heavy-hitting hard-rock rife with wild guitar solos and shredding, and garnished with a touch of hardcore punk breakdowns and riot grrrl vocals.
With an occasional bit of synth here and there, The Velveteers amped everyone up to a boiling point just before The Black Keys took to the stage.
