//The Black Keys: July 18th at the Graceland.

I was getting close to midnight, and I was starting to wonder why I even bother to see live music. The two opening acts I had just sat through we’re pretty uninspired, and uninspiring, and my choice to haul my sorry ass over to Seattle was looking less and less brilliant. After all, I’d spent the day breaking rocks (well, shoveling gravel anyway) in the hot sun, and I was feeling damn tired. "Maybe I should have just stayed home", I thought, as I sat in an uncushioned booth in the corner. When I heard the crowd start whooping I looked up to see two white guys shuffle onto the stage. I idly wondered if the final score for the night would be 0-3. That thought didn’t last longer that the first soulful squeal or crushing thump, and when I thought to look around I had somehow made my way onto the floor, awash in more blues chops then most bands would know what to do with.

The Black Keys are two average looking guys from Akron Ohio, and the word that best describes their music is "primal". Their music isn’t rock, it’s the primordial ooze rock crawled out of. This music in most closely related to the sort of blues played by wandering guitar players in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, when it was nothing but a little bit of guitar and a ton of raw emotion. Raw, of course, being another key word. There is no subtlety here, just songs that quickly lodge themselves in both your heart and your mind. The Black keys seem to have succeeded at the neigh impossible task of creating music that is simple without being stupid. They make you feel like jumping around and waving you fist in the air without feeling self-conscious about it. Their show was just a fun experience, no two ways about it. At the end of the night I felt good about the whole experience, opening acts and all. And I didn’t feel so tired any more. A little catharsis goes a long way.

//Reccomendation