Yesterday I had the opportunity to see The Black Keys play last night at the John Labatt Centre (JLC) here in London ON. For free. Well, it came with a little twist or should I say a few little tweets 😉
It all started out on twitter. Yup you heard it. Good things can actually come out of social media happenings. I only say this partially because my sister likes to poke fun at me about my “twits” even though they are called “tweets.”
Anyways, I ended up being one of the #JLCreviewer winners. I was super stoked and yes, I even did a little happy dance which for the record is probably more better than my regular dancing skills. It was a good day that day.
This was my first and will definitely not be my last concert at the JLC. Personally, I thought it was a good venue, bathrooms and all. Plus, dudes took care of the winners–we were able to meet Cage The Elephant (Second big thanks goes out to FM 96 Rocks. You can check out their own contest winners and pix of the band HERE.) Free t-shirt and disc as well. Pretty cool…
After the concert, we decided to head down to the Black Shire pub, totally unrelated to The Black Keys, and someone asked me, “So, what is your review going to be about?” All I could say was “Well, I learned that they were from Ohio tonight.” Sure enough, some laughed. No big deal–what did they think my review was going to be about? Perhaps the bands I had just seen with them 😉
Then one said, “You can’t talk about Ohio…that’s not even a negative or a positive!” Trust me after working in the Tourism industry one summer and dealing with people from Ohio (even ask my 2 sisters who worked at the “Duty Free” store) not everything good comes out of Ohio. And, The Black Keys ARE EVERYTHING GOOD And even more…. So if I want to talk about Ohio in my review, I can and I believe I just did 😉
For a 2-man-band-group, The Black Keys are amazing. I started liking them after I heard “Tighten Up” on the radio. No, I wasn’t always a long time fan, but after this experience most definitely signed up to be one. The opening band–Cage The Elephant–was a big hit in my books anyways!
I will admit this was my first time ever hearing of them or their music. That aside, I thought Cage The Elephant was a great choice for opening band for The Black Keys. They were able to rev up the crowd with their songs and body surfing that Matt did (Even though he said he wouldn’t after FM 96 asked if he would do… fooled ya **hehe**). You can check out Cage The Elephant website HERE.
As for the main attraction, The Black Keys, I would definitely see this band again. Even if they came again on a Tuesday night (Apparently some were complaining that it should have been on a weekend night. Sure if you want to drink, get drunk, and be hung over and not work the next day–but that’s not my style) As a huge live-music junkie, I would see them on a Sunday, a Monday, a Tuesday… and a….I am sure you get my point. They are just that good. They played the songs that almost everyone knew: “Tighten up” and “Howlin’ For You.” And another one of my favs “The Only One” and “Ten Cent Pistol.”
Okay, okay, not gonna lie, all their songs on their album “Brothers” (2010) are my fav but not gonna list all the songs they did play because
- You should just go see them for yourself or at least invest in some of their albums if not all.
- In the meantime, check out The Black Keys’ website HERE
Their encore was pretty sweet too. Lights that flashed “Black Keys” simultaneously caused the crowd to chant “Black….Keys.” They came out to play 2 more songs. Sinister Kid and I can’t remember the second one.
This was overall an amazing experience. Thanks to JLC (Chris Campbell), and FM96Rocks for this experience.
The only “bad” thing: I didn’t like Cage The Elephant’s interview (Not the live acoustic part because that was amazing…I just wasn’t a big fan of their responses or maybe it was the questions that they were asked?!) I could say they could brush up on their interview skills but they are musicians making music not musicians making interviews.
Oh and if you think me talking about Ohio in my review is bad. You should check out my joke about Ohio:
Question: What’s round on the outside and high in the middle? Answer: OHIO!
Hey, didn’t say I was a comedian 😉
Other reviews
Check out Phronk’s review HERE.
Check out Amanda’s review HERE.
Check out Laura’s review HERE.
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