I Saw the Black Keys!!!

As some of you may know ( those of you who follow me on Twitter (and if you don't, why? It's

@TunaxSardines)), I went to a concert last night. It was my first ever live gig and I'm glad I chose 

this as it. I attended The Black Keys concert that took place at Barclay's Centre in Brooklyn.

The trudge there was long and hard. Before the concert, I had a full nine hour day of classes and only

two hours between my final class ending and the concert beginning. Luckily my friend Brittany (who

attended the concert as well), lived near both our college and the venue, so I was able to have a little

pit stop at her place for an hour.


We hopped on the R train from her house for the short journey to Barclay's Centre. As you can see

from the picture, we weren't the most subtle of fans, opting to wear a uniform of friendship consisting

of a band merch jumper and dark jeans ( yeah, we are cool like that).

After awkward stares on the train from other commuters, we got off in Brooklyn and promptly went 

inside the centre. We were about half an hour early so we had time so sit comfortable in our 

seats. We opted for balcony seats as even though the standing area is fun and a closer proximity to the 

band, it is also a tad bit more dangerous and unsafe.

The view from our seats

The gig started at 8:00pm on the dot with the opening act, Cage the Elephant, who performed an energetic set playing old songs and new from their three studio albms. Some of the songs played included "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked", "Take It or Leave It", "Come A Little Closer", and "Cigarette Daydreams".  The performance was full of energy as the lead singer, Matt Schulz, engaged in many rock and roll antics such as jumping around the stage, crowd surfing, crowd diving and getting lost in the music.  At the end of his set he poked fun at the amount of time he spent in the hands of the fans by saying, "Thank You New York! Thank you for holding me gingerly in your hands!" Although I've heard of Cage the Elephant and listened to one or two of their songs on Xfm, I wasn't really a fan. Now I am and have already downloaded all the songs they played live that night.

After a brief intermission that included 60s punk and jazz songs such as Jacques Dutronc's "Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi," The Black Keys themselves (Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney), came on to stage to roaring cheers and applause.

They played around twenty songs from all different albums. They weren't like some other bands who 

would avoid playing the hits only to focus on the songs from the most recent album. They played 

songs such as "Dead and Gone" from their 2011 album El Camino, and "Tighten Up" from their 2010

 album, Brothers. 

After around seventeen songs, The Keys left the stage for a bit before coming back on to do a stellar encore where they played the single "Turn Blue" after which the tour and the associated album are named. They also performed the single "Weight of Love" during the encore and punctuated it with an astronomical guitar solos throughout. The backing musicians- bassist Richard Swift and John Clement Wood on keyboards also added depth to the music and helped bring the complexity of the studio recordings to the live performance.

      Here's a snippet of "Weight Of Love":

All in all it was a really good gig. Lot's of energy, wonderful vocals (Dan sounded better live than he did in the studio recording for some of these songs), masterful guitar solos, and a great vibe. 

I can't dance, but I did.

Here are some photos from the night:

Low lighting+ dark skin= #Selfiefail

Ah, that's better. Thank God for flash, eh? P.S. my hair looks heavenly.

This adorable little old man was rocking out hard. He had little binoculars to see the gig up close and had more rhythm in his body than I do.

The Black Keys were phenomenal and I would definitely see them again.