The Black Keys are in New York City this week to kick off the new year and the new season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live with host Jim Carrey. This appearance comes after a monumentally successful 2010 for the duo, which they closed out with three sold-out New Year's shows at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom. The Chicago Tribune says the band is an example of "how modern artists can earn mainstream success without sacrificing integrity," their live show exhibiting the "combination of persistence and persuasion that helped the band own 2010."
The Black Keys are in New York City this week to kick off the new year and the new season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live with host Jim Carrey. This appearance comes after a monumentally successful 2010 for the duo, whose acclaimed release Brothers, is up for six Grammy nominations.
Band mates Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney closed out their biggest year yet in a way similar to how it began, with a return to Chicago for sold-out New Year's Eve shows, only this time around in a fittingly bigger way, adding an additional third sold-out show New Year's Day, at the prestigious Aragon Ballroom.
The Chicago Tribune, in its review of the December 30 opening-night show, cites "Auerbach's effortless command of the guitar and Carney's focused assault on the drums."
Bob Gendron, reviewing show for the paper, recognizes the duo as a prime example of "how modern artists can earn mainstream success without sacrificing integrity," noting: "Years of ceaseless touring, consistent recording and savvy decisions recently paid off in the form of an acclaimed album and skyrocketing demand."
At the Aragon performance, "Auerbach and Carney engaged in sonic chess matches, each anticipating the other's moves with responses that heightened the commotion," says Gendron.
The set seemed to add further evidence of the band's being at the top of their game. Gendron writes:
The pair's chemistry afforded even the noisiest fare a spaciousness and complexity it lacked only a few years ago. Two of the Black Keys' signature songs—'Thickfreakness' and 'The Girl Is on My Mind'—sounded completely refreshed, the trance-inducing blues riffs exploding with same combination of persistence and persuasion that helped the band own 2010.
Read the complete concert review at chicagotribune.com.
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Meanwhile, a few additional year-end best lists came in over the holidays, with Newsday placing it in its Top 5 list. Detroit Free Press music critic Brian McCollum includes it in his Top 10, describing it as a "blues-rock gem."
To pick up a copy of Brothers on CD and vinyl, with the album MP3s included at checkout, head to the Nonesuch Store.
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