Music DVD Review: The Black Keys - Live at the Crystal Ballroom

Recorded on April 4, 2008, The Black Keys - Live at the Crystal Ballroom offers the Akron duo at their best. Knocking out a raw, bluesy, minimalistic set in front of a sold-out crowd at the Portland venue, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney offer up unyielding gobs of get-up-and-go. Auerbach’s guitar is a weapon of distortion and vigorous licks in his proficient hands and Carney’s drums thump and clock through the set with the precision timing of a metronome and the ferocity of a Republican on a coke binge.

The DVD, produced and chopped together by R.E.M.'s Road Movie director Lance Bangs, features 17 live songs from the Crystal Ballroom gig and includes some music videos and behind-the-scenes footage of the recording process for 2008’s excellent Attack & Release.

Amid frequent comparisons to The White Stripes, The Black Keys have been able to forge their own path in the blues rock world. Grungy and immensely talented, Auerbach and Carney have earned accolades from music giants like Thom Yorke, Josh Homme, Robert Plant, and Billy Gibbons. And witnessing their live show on Live at the Crystal Ballroom, it’s easy to see why.

The boys channel just about every classic rock god known to man, strikingly driving through an active set that shifts effortlessly from one song to the next and infuses each number with crowd-pumping power and bluesy magnificence.

With the Crystal Ballroom transformed into the hottest little dive bar this side of the Mississippi and The Black Keys lacing a frenetic pace with feedback, loud cymbals, and low-end fuzz, it’s easy to get carried away with this DVD. Air guitar is a must as Auerbach channels the adventurousness of Hendrix and the timing of Page to come up with a riveting concoction of blues, rock, and grunge all his own. As his guitar moans through cuts like “Same Old Thing,” “Stack Shot Billy,” and “Strange Times,” something magical happens and the floor gives way to rock and roll paradise.

Article Author: Jordan Richardson

Jordan Richardson is a Canadian freelance writer and ne'er-do-well. He writes stuff here and here.

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