by eliza czander
I’m sitting on a dirty towel at McCarren Park Pool when the ground starts to vibrate. I look up from my texting and see that Pat, the drummer of The Black Keys has taken the stage and has started pounding. I stand up just in time for Dan, the singer and guitarist, to start their first song, wailing..and it just doesn’t stop. Posting up at the rail in front of the stage, I can now see the sweat falling from Dan’s hair onto his guitar as he riffs, strums…hell, he is musically raping his fucking guitar.
Listening to them live, it’s hard to believe The Black Keys are just a two piece band from Akron, Ohio. Their sound is so colossal, Dan’s one guitar sounds like 3, and Pat’s drum kit seems dwarfed by it’s own resonance. The crowd, consisting of mostly guys in their late 20’s and 30’s, gets especially pumped when they start playing “Strange Times,” and then absolutely loses their shit during “Brooklyn Bound.” I look up and a girl is on someone’s shoulders, raging the fuck out. I’m thinking she might even flash the band, 90’s style, but just then The Keys decide to “do a mellow one,” Dan prefaces. The song “All You Ever Wanted” is fervidly sweet, and both guys have their eyes closed throughout the ballad. It’s beautiful, really.
To end the show, which has been composed mostly of their latest album, Attack and Release (produced by Danger Mouse), The Keys bang out the crowd-pleasing “I Got Mine.” It seems nearly everyone in the crowd is screaming along and dancing the way people only dance in Brooklyn. Scanning the pool, it’s crazy that this show wasn’t sold out. Hopefully, people start to realize that The Black Keys are pretty goddamn amazing, but for now, watching this awesome show here in an emptied out pool in the midst of summer, I couldn’t be happier. Please, please listen to the song posted below. And really listen, the lyrics will stir you just as much as the music does.
