Note this rock n’ roll fans: THE BLACK KEYS know how to curate a setlist. The two-piece from Akron, Ohio, have elicited an entirely different vibe on their Turn Blue tour and while it isn’t adjacent to what they’ve done in support of Brothers or El Camino, it fits their current run through life. In between dates in Toronto and Montreal, the Keys knocked out a gig at Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre (September 17th) and blues’d it out with more recent cuts – thumbing through “Lonely Boy”, “Gotta Get Away”, and “She’s Long Gone” while digging up an Edwyn Collins cover.
The set noticeably lacked material from Thickfreakness and Rubber Factory, but in hindsight, it really didn’t need it. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney do “moody” well because in their case, it becomes an authentic portrait of reality on the live stage. Not many bands can unplug for “Little Black Submarines” and go straight into a gutting hot take of “I Got Mine”, but for the Keys, that’s their bread and butter. Photog Sean Wilkin was on-site and his stills are below.