Live Review: The Black Keys, Royal Headache

Something very interesting seems to be on the feet of everyone in Royal Headache. The band members just can't seem to look up as they go about their business, meekly staring downwards and occasionally, sheepishly, at each other. Early songs like Down The Lane are delivered rapidly, and the band, with the exception of its frontman Shogun, seem either nervous and trying to get things over as quickly as possible or just plain bored. Their performance is tidy enough, and their songs are tuneful, unpolished and damned absorbing, but a group of folks on a stage the size of the Entertainment Centre's should do a little more to look like they're not just running through their set at rehearsal. Closer Honey Joy is, of course, a highlight, and seems to win over a few skeptics at the front staking out a position for the headliners.

It's all The Black Keys tonight. The filthy, loose shuffle of Howlin' For You immediately has the room swaying and humming “Da da da da da!” in unison. Frontman Dan Auerbach's many guitars and pedals produce more fuzz than the annual output of all the Velcro factories in China, and sideman Patrick Carney proves that the old saying “A band is only as good as its drummer” is probably rubbish. Auerbach's occasional falsetto attempts are tremendous in Run Right Back and (later in the encore) and apparent crowd favourite Everlasting Light, in which a giant mirrorball looms over the band. The three-song segment where the touring musicians take a break and The Black Keys play as a two-piece is a high point. Auerbach is in complete synch with the ebb and flow of Carney's off-kilter backbeat, and the sloppiness seemed to function almost as a third (and fourth) instrument. The muddy, stripped-back wobble of Thickfreakness (the only track from the classic album of the same name played during the set) shows that Auerbach's songs are strong enough to get by without needing a whole lot of colour from anything other than a guitar and some drums. They may not have much in the way of on-stage charisma between songs, but when it's just them and music is being made, “The groove is king”, as Auerbach likes to say.