LOS ANGELES – The Black Keys said little but played hard during their stop at the Wiltern LG on Tuesday night. Buzznet was there to see them rip through a set of classics, new songs and everything in between.

"He's Patrick, I'm Dan and we're the Black Keys from Akron, Ohio."

That's all the Black Keys' frontman Dan Auerbach needed to say about the astonishing outpour of blues-infested rock that came from him and drummer Patrick Carney. And that's all they said the rest of the night.

On the day when their fifth studio album, Attack and Release, hit stores, the Black Keys, looking more like a grizzly forest ranger and a computer geek than a ferocious rock duo, did some attacking and releasing of its own to a sold-out crowd at the Wiltern Theater.

With past albums like Rubber Factory and Magic Potion having a strong presence, the Keys delivered a crowd-pleasing mix of old and new songs. From the new "Strange Times" to the classic crowd favorite "Your Touch," the duo managed to keep the fast-paced songs at the forefront and the slow jams to a minimal. (Though songs like the slower "Lies" and the memorizing "You're the One" proved to be the prefect vehicle for the humble Auerbach to shine vocally.)


While it continues to amaze that just two guys can create such a full sound (I couldn’t help but to check the side stage for a third member), it’s perhaps equally impressive to watch them jam out and stay together on extended live versions of so many songs.

In what seemed like a 20-minute set (it actually hovered around 75 minutes), the Keys wasted no time chatting up the crowd and instead used a little guitar tuning and a quick "thanks" to transition to the next song. During a brief moment halfway through, an unassuming Auerbach reminded the crowd of the new album, giving off a feeling of relief more than excitement, before launching into "I Got Mine."


With five-plus albums worth of material to pull from, the crowd seemed to check their cell phones when Auerbach thanked the crowd a little under an hour into it, before hurrying into an encore. But it was clear from the start the Black Keys weren't going to force anything and gave just enough to clearly leave people wanting more, and that’s not a bad thing.

Opening band Jay Reatard from Memphis, Tennessee, rolled through its brief and catchy set with the speed and monotony of a Ramones show. But the thrown together stage setup and raw sound seemed a fitting warm up for what was to come.


Although Tuesday's show was complete with lasers, strobe lights and an inflatable tire backdrop, seeing Auerbach and Carney chuckle at each other after a mess up during the encore's "10 a.m. Automatic" showed they are still just two dudes from jamming. Whether it's to a sold-out crowd in Los Angeles or back home in Akron, they don’t seem to care.

— Kyle Moss