A New Champion, and Bucket List Achieved
Tonight pussygalore66 and I saw the The Black Keys at Quicken Loans Arena. This marked two milestones.
[1] This was the tenth time I had seen The Black Keys perform. This broke a tie with Freekbass (formerly Freebass) and officially makes The Black Keys the band I've seen the most times in concert.
[2] One of my minor bucket list goals was to see a band in a small club that one day became a huge arena touring success. I think I can say I've done that now. Although I never saw The Black Keys at the Lime Spider or at their 2002 Beachland Tavern show when they played to 25 people, I did catch them at Cain Park in 2003 right after their breakthrough album Thickfreakness came out. From there I followed them to the Beachland Ballroom and a series of shows at the Agora and assorted Akron venues. Now they're playing Madison Square Garden, which they sold out in 15 minutes. There's no venue more famous than the Garden, so I think it's safe to cross this goal off. Heck, I've routinely been playing their music on my show since 2003, so maybe in some small way I helped them out.
I enjoyed the show tonight but it actually felt kind of weird in some ways. It was the first time I'd seen them with supporting musicians (a bassist and another guy who alternated between keyboards and guitar). The audience skewed much younger than me, and was pretty clearly only familiar with the two most recent albums, aka the ones that got a mainstream audience and Grammy nominations/wins. When the supporting musicians were sent offstage and the Black Keys launched into their old stuff, most of the people around us looked like they'd never heard it before.
[3] Here's the list of all the times I've seen The Black Keys.
1- Opening for Solomon Burke at Cain Park, Summer 2003. This is possibly the greatest performance by an opening act that I've ever seen.
2- At a sold out Beachland Ballroom on 10/9/2004 with The Cuts.
3- Headlining the Falls Festival in Lorne, Australia on 12/31/2004. They played as the clock struck midnight.
4- The first of five consecutive sold out shows at the Agora Theater on 2/25/2006. With another Akron native, Patrick Sweany, plus Chicagoans Miss Alex White & the Red Orchestra.
5- At the Agora Theater on 11/18/2006. The Black Angels opened but I didn't make it there in time to see them.
6- At the Agora Theater again on 6/25/2007 with The Walkmen.
7- At Akron Civic Theater on 12/22/2007.
8- At EJ Thomas Hall on 10/11/2008 with the Royal Bangs.
9- Again at the Agora Theater on 1/30/2009. The show on 1/31 was the first Black Keys show I missed in Cleveland since 2004. The Agora stiffed them on their paycheck, leading to a lawsuit and more or less directly leading to the lack of a decent show at the Agora in the last three years.
10- I skipped a show at Nautica in 2010, which was the first tour to feature supporting musicians, but I caught them tonight in their triumphant debut at Quicken Loans Arena on 3/20/2012. They were supported by Arctic Monkeys.
BONUS SHOWS
11 - I had a three minute conversation with Dan Auerbach at the Black Angels show at the Beachland Tavern on 8/01/2006. Embarrassingly, I didn't recognize him. I knew he looked really familiar, so I ended up asking him "Listen, I don't know your name but you look REALLY damn familiar, do I know you from somewhere?" "Well, I'm in this band called The Black Keys." "Oh yeah, that's it." He was there scouting The Black Angels as an opener.
12- Jessica Lea Mayfield did some vocals on Attack & Release and Auerbach produced her debut album "With Blasphemy So Heartfelt". I went to the CD release party at the Beachland Tavern on 9/16/2008.
13- I caught Dan Auerbach's solo show on 3/5/2009 at the Beachland Ballroom. I had tickets for a follow up show at the House of Blues as well, but it was cancelled.
14- Patrick Carney's side project Drummer played the Beachland Ballroom on 10/24/2009 with Other Girls and The Royal Bangs.
After The Black Keys and Freakbass, I believe that the next bands on my personal 'most seen' list are Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Mike Doughty and Fred Eaglesmith. Without building the database I mentioned I can't easily tell who is in the lead, but I'm pretty sure I've seen them each more than six times, which is the number of times I saw my favorite live band ever, Moxy Früvous.
[1] This was the tenth time I had seen The Black Keys perform. This broke a tie with Freekbass (formerly Freebass) and officially makes The Black Keys the band I've seen the most times in concert.
[2] One of my minor bucket list goals was to see a band in a small club that one day became a huge arena touring success. I think I can say I've done that now. Although I never saw The Black Keys at the Lime Spider or at their 2002 Beachland Tavern show when they played to 25 people, I did catch them at Cain Park in 2003 right after their breakthrough album Thickfreakness came out. From there I followed them to the Beachland Ballroom and a series of shows at the Agora and assorted Akron venues. Now they're playing Madison Square Garden, which they sold out in 15 minutes. There's no venue more famous than the Garden, so I think it's safe to cross this goal off. Heck, I've routinely been playing their music on my show since 2003, so maybe in some small way I helped them out.
I enjoyed the show tonight but it actually felt kind of weird in some ways. It was the first time I'd seen them with supporting musicians (a bassist and another guy who alternated between keyboards and guitar). The audience skewed much younger than me, and was pretty clearly only familiar with the two most recent albums, aka the ones that got a mainstream audience and Grammy nominations/wins. When the supporting musicians were sent offstage and the Black Keys launched into their old stuff, most of the people around us looked like they'd never heard it before.
[3] Here's the list of all the times I've seen The Black Keys.
1- Opening for Solomon Burke at Cain Park, Summer 2003. This is possibly the greatest performance by an opening act that I've ever seen.
2- At a sold out Beachland Ballroom on 10/9/2004 with The Cuts.
3- Headlining the Falls Festival in Lorne, Australia on 12/31/2004. They played as the clock struck midnight.
4- The first of five consecutive sold out shows at the Agora Theater on 2/25/2006. With another Akron native, Patrick Sweany, plus Chicagoans Miss Alex White & the Red Orchestra.
5- At the Agora Theater on 11/18/2006. The Black Angels opened but I didn't make it there in time to see them.
6- At the Agora Theater again on 6/25/2007 with The Walkmen.
7- At Akron Civic Theater on 12/22/2007.
8- At EJ Thomas Hall on 10/11/2008 with the Royal Bangs.
9- Again at the Agora Theater on 1/30/2009. The show on 1/31 was the first Black Keys show I missed in Cleveland since 2004. The Agora stiffed them on their paycheck, leading to a lawsuit and more or less directly leading to the lack of a decent show at the Agora in the last three years.
10- I skipped a show at Nautica in 2010, which was the first tour to feature supporting musicians, but I caught them tonight in their triumphant debut at Quicken Loans Arena on 3/20/2012. They were supported by Arctic Monkeys.
BONUS SHOWS
11 - I had a three minute conversation with Dan Auerbach at the Black Angels show at the Beachland Tavern on 8/01/2006. Embarrassingly, I didn't recognize him. I knew he looked really familiar, so I ended up asking him "Listen, I don't know your name but you look REALLY damn familiar, do I know you from somewhere?" "Well, I'm in this band called The Black Keys." "Oh yeah, that's it." He was there scouting The Black Angels as an opener.
12- Jessica Lea Mayfield did some vocals on Attack & Release and Auerbach produced her debut album "With Blasphemy So Heartfelt". I went to the CD release party at the Beachland Tavern on 9/16/2008.
13- I caught Dan Auerbach's solo show on 3/5/2009 at the Beachland Ballroom. I had tickets for a follow up show at the House of Blues as well, but it was cancelled.
14- Patrick Carney's side project Drummer played the Beachland Ballroom on 10/24/2009 with Other Girls and The Royal Bangs.
After The Black Keys and Freakbass, I believe that the next bands on my personal 'most seen' list are Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Mike Doughty and Fred Eaglesmith. Without building the database I mentioned I can't easily tell who is in the lead, but I'm pretty sure I've seen them each more than six times, which is the number of times I saw my favorite live band ever, Moxy Früvous.