Ohio’s Cuyahoa Falls On Friday night at Blossom Music Center, West Akron’s pride band, the Black Keys, made a triumphant return to their virtual hometown to perform for the general public as part of their No Rain, No Flowers tour.
A publicly rocky section is followed by the present tour. The band obtained new management in 2024 prior to their American International Players tour, scheduled and canceled a U.S. arena tour because of poor ticket sales, and then sacked the new management. Following a successful European tour, drummer Pat Carney and singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach, together with five hired hands, returned to American stages for a packed, all-ages amphitheater and lawn show. Their one-hour, forty-five-minute set covered most of their 13-album history, with the exception of 2024’s Ohio Players.
Related: The Black Keys return with a new album and a Blossom Music Center show in their hometown
After a flawlessly staged mock station identification in the 1970s for WTBK public access channel 13, Auerbach and Carney made their theatrical debut as a duo in front of a huge curtain. At local venues like the Beachland Tavern and Akron’s long-gone Lime Spider, they momentarily reverted to their modest fuzz-blues-rock origins by performing a medley of their early hits, including Thickfreakness, The Breaks, and I’ll Be Your Man.
Then, to thunderous applause from the O-H, I-O throng, Auerbach delivered the band’s customary greeting: We’re the Black Keys from Akron, Ohio. Before the band’s extended touring lineup was revealed, he declared, “We’re going to play another West Akron basement song.” The now-septet launched into “Your Touch,” then “Gold on the Ceiling,” with the enthusiastic audience enthusiastically joining in on the catchy chorus.
Due to the larger lineup, some older songs were enhanced with keyboards, percussion, three guitars, and two- or even three-part vocal harmonies. Andy Gabbard, an Ohio native and backing singer-guitarist who was previously with the psych-rock group The Buffalo Killers, was mostly responsible for this. Auerbach quipped during band intros, “We won’t hold that against him, but he’s from Cincinnati.” On the new song “A Little Too High,” Gabbard also performed a slide solo, while Ray Jacildo’s wiggly synth solo from the 1970s was featured on Psychotic Girl.
The band added English guitarist Barrie Little Barrie Cadogan, a former sideman with Liam Gallagher (who suggested him to the Keys), Morrissey, Paul Weller, and others for the American leg of the tour. He took a few sharp-edged solos on I Got Mine and dueled with Auerbach on the swampy Heavy Soul, the new soul-infused song Too Afraid To Love You, and the hazy Turn Blue ballad Weight of Love.
Six songs from their double-platinum album Brothers, which was their commercial breakthrough, were interspersed throughout the set. Highlights of the main set included Everlasting Light, which had a simmering intro and some excellent falsetto by Auerbach; Next Girl, which featured a punchy, staccato solo by Cadogan; a sing-along called Tighten Up; and a twofer, Howlin’ For You, in which Auerbach asked the audience to assist him with a wordless chorus, and they gladly did.
Although the Keys have never been known for their on-stage banter, Auerbach called out Akron several times (almost every other artist at Blossom calls out Cleveland). A tray of the restaurant’s famous Galley Boy burgers was then brought out by two runners from the well-liked Akron burger joint Swensons Drive-In prior to Lo/Hi. (Backstage Swensons are a custom whenever the Keys are in town.) A few fortunate fans were so hungry that Auerbach even threw some of the wrapped burgers into their outstretched arms. Auerbach demonstrated his Akron credentials by scolding the runners as they reveled in the applause of the crowd: Hey! It is expected that you all wear shorts. Why is that happening? (The official Swensons uniform includes shorts.) The Akronites in the house laughed at the line.
Compared to their recorded equivalents, the four tracks from No Rain, No Flowers sounded thinner. The poppish title track, the 70s soul ballad-inspired song Down To Nothing, and the album’s lone bluesy stomper, Man On A Mission, all have more grit. The only cover of the evening was a sluggish and syrupy rendition of the Canned Heat song “On The Road Again,” in which Auerbach reached into his bluesy falsetto without mimicking the high tenor that is characteristic of Canned Heat singer Alan Wilson. The song had a lengthy slide solo with a hill country feel for the cleanest blues moment of the evening.
The audience, which stood for a large portion of the performance, got back up and dancing for the hits Howlin For You and She’s Long Gone after a brief lull when the band played a couple new songs close together.
The band sent everyone home with Lonely Boy, and Auerbach made a comeback with an acoustic guitar for the beloved, phone-light-hoisting Little Black Submarines. The Black Keys seem to have weathered their storm in the music industry and are back to collecting their flowers on the road with a strong band, a catalog of solid hits, and a devoted, multigenerational fan base, even though multi-platinum records and multiple Grammy awards may be in their illustrious past.
Gary Clark Jr., who last performed at Jacobs Pavilion in Northeast Ohio in 2024, warmed up the audience earlier with a seven-song, hour-long concert. Before he and his veteran band launched into the toe-tapping, African-infused beat of Maktub, he opened with a swirling, bass-heavy snatch of the blues standard Catfish Blues. Fans of both bands danced in their seats as many men wailed on their air guitars alongside Clark Jr. and his real instrument, and Clark Jr. had a sizable contingent among the nearly sold-out crowd.
Related: Gary Clark Jr. performs at Jacobs Pavilion with his unique blend of rock, funk, blues, and soul.
Clark Jr. was heralded as the next generation of blues-rock revivalists when he first made his national debut. He swiftly rejected the simple pigeon-holing, though. His latter work has gone much beyond that blues-rock label, particularly his 2024 album JPEG Raw. However, it’s evident that the Texas native’s roots are deeply ingrained in blues soil whenever he took a break from the microphone to perform a solo, like in the breakdown of When My Train Pulls In, where he methodically built a solo from quiet, delicate single notes to bluesy bends and a screaming wah-wah crescendo. With his smooth falsetto on the funky, socially concerned song Feed The Babies, Clark Jr. ventured into the realm of Curtis Mayfield. He also ripped off another long, smoldering solo on the frantic shuffle of I Don’t Owe You A Thang. He left the audience ready for the headliners with his hit song, Bright Lights.
Stories by
Malcolm Abram
-
The Black Keys rise again with new album and hometown concert at Blossom Music Center
-
Friends and Legends concert to honor Michael Stanley and support local charities
-
Rock legend Neil Young proves he s not fading away at Blossom Music Center
-
Donnie Iris & The Cruisers returning to MGM Northfield Park in December
