The Black Keys, AO Arena, Manchester 22/06/2023

Akron, Ohio‘s very own rock n’ roll duo The Black Keys return to a packed AO Arena in Manchester for their Dropout Boogie Tour.

Several years after their last visit, The Black Keys, the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, returned to Manchester this past thursday night in support of their eleventh record Dropout Boogie.

It could have been expected that their Dropout Boogie Tour would have been a little less of a hit being this close to Glastonbury – a festival that the band have vowed never to play again – but couldn’t be anymore wrong.

The AO was packed to the brim, with a standing crowd all-up for a blast of their iconic raw sound.

Shortly after 9pm, the band reach the stage to open with the only Attack & Release airing of the night, “I Got Mine“, followed quickly by one of their more recent notables “Fever“.

The start felt a little off, especially with guitarist Dan Auerbach‘s vocals on “Fever”, but that seemed like a small blip, as the band’s follow-ups, Dropout Boogie‘s “It Ain’t Over“, and Magic Potion‘s “Your Touch” show that they’re on the mark.

The Black Keys are the type of band that wear their influences very heavily on their sleeves, and proudly, as proven by their tenth record Delta Kream, which saw them take to covering hill country blues songs that brought The Black Keys to life.

Delta Kream featured covers of the likes of Banjo Joe (psyudonm of the Jug Stomper himself Gus Cannon), Ranie Burnette, and most importantly, Junior Kimbrough, whose “Crawling Kingsnake” was the single, and the sole Kream track to be played.

It’s important for the duo to show their influences, as they do again after the fan favourite “Tighten Up“, the first of their iconic Brothers, which they pair with a cover of Richard Berry‘s “Have Love, Will Travel“, to great effect.

It’s been 12-odd years since the release of their first record to chart in the UK, El Camino, to which every record after that reached into the Top 10 of the Album Charts, however the band loved to “reach into the basement”, as Auerbach loved to say, referencing their start in basements playing those aforementioned Kimbrough, and Muddy Waters covers.

It feels as-if every song out of their playbook brings the crowd alive, “Howlin’ For You” being one of them.

Despite the band’s high energy, with Auerbach‘s motion and raw playing style, teathered with Carney‘s volatile and crashing drumming, the band seems to excel when they slow it all the way down, as seen with Turn Blue‘s “Weight of Love“, which sounds utterly luminescent as the song winds into controlled-and-beautiful-chaos, and again with a new, stripped-back arrangement of “Everlasting Light“.

The band’s basement dive concludes between those two, with a slice from their 2001 debut The Big Come Up‘s “Heavy Soul“, which sounds as great as ever, along with “Your Team Is Looking Good“, backed with shots of ’70s high school football games for the feel.

Auerbach seemed in a great mood all-night, constantly thanking the crowd and introducing his partner-in-crime Patrick Carney, only ever breaking that pattern to tell a “beefcake” attendee to calm down because his attitude stinks, citing “this is a rock n’ roll show, there’s going to be a bit of pushing”, only the truth.

By-time “Gold on the Ceiling” arrives, the crowd is still in fine form, but erupts even louder for the El Camino snippet, harmonising on the Auerbach‘s guitar melody alone, before being backed with recent single “Wild Child“, before the band closes out with “She’s Long Gone“, the final Brothers reach.

The Black Keys return to the stage for their two-piece El Camino encore, asking for the crowd to lift their phone torches for the ballad-turned-riot “Little Black Submarines“, which is effortlessly beautiful to the touch, with Auerbach‘s soaring vocals reaching a silence before the band bursts into an upheaval of rock n’ roll.

Auerbach thanks the adoring crowd, before they blitz through the well-awaited “Lonely Boy“, the crowd red-hot throughout.

It’s not since the days of Tesla and Edison has a duo created this much electricity, as The Black Keys’ rip-roar Dropout Boogie Tour forced all the right moves.

Words by Jack Cinnamond, with Photography by Jessica Jayne Sharpe.