Curve Away

*Or, Holy Crap, that was incredible!

Went with some friends, including the wonderful sweetliligal, to see The Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys Wednesday night. We unfortunately missed most of the Monkeys’ set, but I wasn’t horribly upset, as I got to see them live last summer.

Anyway, I like The Black Keys. I do. But I would consider myself a casual fan- my favorite songs by them are basically their hits- “Lonely Boy”, “Tighten Up”, “Howling for You”, “Everlasting Light”… I have their albums, but I don’t reallyknowthem. I got a chance to see them at Austin City Limits Festival in 2010. And while that set was good, it was literally the first thing I saw upon arriving at the park at 4:00 in the blazing afternoon sun, with a hugemongous crowd, from a less than stellar spot. It didn’t leave a tremendous impression on me.

Wednesday night was completely different. The stage set-up was simple, but interesting with Dan taking the mic at center stage and Patrick behind the drums off to his left. Behind them were their bassist and keyboard player and some big ass stands with lights. From the first song, “Howling for You”, they had me. Dan certainly doesn’t dance around the stage, but he sings and plays with a lot of passion and enthusiasm. Patrick sat silently the whole night, but it was really cool when the drums took the lead in a song and he was backlit with a ton of lights.

Their bluesy, garage-rock kept me tapping my foot and dancing in my seat the whole time. Yes, I sat most of the show. We had excellent seats, so we took advantage of them. We did stand for the amazing encore. “Everlasting Light” was the first of the last three songs they played. To enhance the song, they had GIANT disco balls descend at the front and back of the audience. I loved it.

They closed the show with an awesome rendition of “I Got Mine”. I was really, really pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the show. I walked out a much bigger Black Keys fan than I was walking in. If you ever get the chance to see them, do it. You won’t regret it.

Setlist (according to setlist.fm)

1. Howlin’ for You
2. Next Girl
3. Run Right Back
4. Same Old Thing
5. Dead and Gone
6. Gold on the Ceiling
7. Thickfreakness
8. Girl Is On My Mind
9. I’ll Be Your Man
10. Your Touch
11. Little Black Submarines
12. Money Maker
13. Strange Times
14. Nova Baby
15. Ten Cent Pistol
16. Tighten Up
17. Lonely Boy
18. Encore:
19. Everlasting Light
20. She’s Long Gone
21. I Got Mine

Favorite new songs after the show: “Little Black Submarines”, “Gold on the Ceiling”, and “Dead and Gone”, which are, incidentally, all on their latest album, El Camino. So yeah, it’s good.

So here’s where I attempt to condense 3 days worth of experiences into a concise, readable, and hopefully, mildly entertaining collection of words.  I’ll try to bullet point the highlights and lowlights for each day, for those of you who find too many words distressing. ;)

Friday

Got to the fest a little before 4:00 with my cousin in tow, and was greeted by a mass of people.  The lines to get in were long and it was hot and everyone, it seemed, was anxious to get in and see the Black Keys.  Went straight to the AMD stage where they were just about to start their set, and found a decent spot to the left of the stage.  Though their set was relatively early, there was a huge crowd assembled to watch them.  I just recently started listening to these guys and really love their sound.  They did not disappoint live.  They started the set with some older songs- just the two of them on stage, they then brought out a few other guys for songs for the Brothers album.  They were great.  The highlight here for me was, of course, Tighten Up.

After that, it was time to eat.  ACL has a pretty good selection of stuff, going way beyond just the traditional festival fair (truffled mac & cheese, anyone?).  While lots of stuff sounded great, I played it safe with a couple of tacos.  While eating, I managed to catch a couple of songs from the lovely Amos Lee. 

Ran back up to the AMD stage to catch the second half of the Spoon set.  Again, I’m pretty new to Spoon, but I was excited to hear Don’t You Evah, which has that great bass groove and got everyone moving.  They closed their strong set with The Underdog, which was fun with everyone dancing and singing along. 

The last show for me on Friday was The Strokes.  My cousin really wanted to try to get up close, so we staked out a spot right after Spoon.  As 8 pm drew nearer, the crush got real and we were shoulder to shoulder with anxious Strokes fans.  The guys came out about 8:15 and ran through their set in only about 45 minutes, but what a 45 minutes it was.  I am the first to admit that my knowledge of the Strokes is limited to Is This It and Last Nite.  That did not matter; I danced and clapped along with everyone else… could not help it.  I became a Strokes fan Friday night.  And god, do I love Julian’s voice… it oozes cool and who-gives-a-fuck-attitude.

Friday Highlights

• Tighten Up with The Black Keys
• Stalking the yummy James Marsden at the Merch tent
• The whole freaking (but too-short) Strokes set

Lowlights

• Missing Vampire Weekend to secure a spot for The Strokes- I caught a tiny little bit of Cousins and it looked like a blast. :(
• Bad shoe choice made walking quite painful by the end of the night.
• Realizing too late that I hadn’t taken any pictures of the Strokes set, though I did get a little bit of video.