I'm Shining Just For You

Let me be your everlasting light... Thanks to Matt Sutej for the photo.

Well, the 2013 visit to the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh by the Black Keys (and The Flaming Lips) has come and gone, but my post-show glow has not been dampened yet. I was eagerly anticipating this show from the moment I heard about it. I've been a major Black Keys fan since I heard 'Your Touch' off Magic Potion and fell in love with their hard-boiled brand of blues-rock. Hell, I even have four of their albums on vinyl now. As it says on the back of The Big Come Up, their debut, it truly is amazing that two guys from Ohio could make music with the sound they do so well at in this day and age.

The show was a double-bill with The Flaming Lips, and I knew very little about them except that for a long time in the mid-2000s they were indie rock darlings (in a career that goes from about 1986 to the present day) and that that 'Tangerine' song was actually titled 'She Don't Use Jelly' (and a very curious piece of pop songwriting to boot).

So we went in (me, Sammy Joyce, Matt Sutej, and Jeremy Shaw) and boy were we in for a treat. First up was the Flaming Lips' set. Like I said, I really had little idea what to expect, but we had heard that the Lips' stage show was damn awesome. Wayne Coyne running around in a giant hamster ball over the crowd, half-nude women splashing paint on each other, and all manner of strange and fascinating sights. We would not be let down.

I still remain bewildered by the Lips' set; it was, in a word, mindblowing. Sadly, none in the crew thought to get any photos of the set: the creepiness of Coyne cradling a limp baby (certainly a doll) in his arms as he sang; the psychedelic visions of nude dancing women in technicolor display; the revolving images of the world from space, the human eye and the nude vulva (sometimes in color inversion); tendrils of light that crept across the stage; and I still don't know what the 'fighting kite' that pulsed with the music was supposed to represent, but I was very much impressed and blindsided by the bizarre visions that The Flaming Lips elected to accompany their set. The music was primarily from their new album, The Terror, and I had not heard anything from it before the show. I was very intrigued  and I do have it now, on vinyl; though I haven't found a moment to listen to it.

That said, when The Black Keys came on for the main attraction, I knew exactly what was going to happen  Almost. You know what they say about some bands that their studio material doesn't do the live show justice? E.G. Deep Purple - they were all tight and perfect in the studio, but when it came time to go on tour, they pulled out every stop possible and rocked the hell out of their audiences. I am glad to report that The Black Keys are a member of this club!

I was surprised when they opened with 'Howlin' For You' from Brothers; this is a favorite of mine, and I'm now guessing that it's a fan favorite. Most of the material was the full band stuff from Attack & Release, Brothers, and El Camino. I had secretly been hoping they might go way back in their catalog and play some older stuff, and for a few songs in the middle of the set they stripped down to just Patrick and Dan and played 'Thickfreakness', 'Girl Is On My Mind' and 'Your Touch' (which they rocked up a lot, instead of just playing it like it was from the album). Visuals were limited to them on stage with some accent footage of broken-down industrial towns like their hometown of Akron and driving shots. Neat stuff, but just an accent to the music.

The photo is from the encore: they played 'Everlasting Light' and 'I Got Mine', and during the former they lowered this HUGE disco ball from the ceiling; I swear it must have been nine feet across! That was a really cool moment, and they saved a lightboard that spelled out 'The Black Keys' for no ther reason than to drop it during 'I Got Mine'. Daaang. They are a powerful live act, and seeing them beofre they got big must have been very interesting, in smaller venues than the Consol.