by Chris De la Rosa
The night opened up with The Velveteers consisting of frontwoman singer/guitarist Demi Demitro and drummers Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig. They are a heavy rock band from Boulder, Colorado. Demitro rocked the guitar and vocals while Pottersmith and Fig drummed in sync on a custom two person drum set. During the song “Beauty Queens” Pottersmith got up with an extra drum, hops off stage and hands the drum to a security guard and he played while the other two continued to play!

The second opener was American rock band Band of Horses formed in 2004 in Seattle, led by Ben Bridwell on vocals, guitar, pedal steel and keys. Ryan Monroe on keys, guitar and backing vocals. Matt Gentling on bass and Brent Nash on guitar. Creighton Barrett on drums. The band played several sounds from their latest album, “Things are Great” that was released in March of this year. Along with favorites like, “Is there a Ghost”, “The Fresh Salt Lake” and ended the night with hit “The Funeral” which was featured in the popular Netflix series Money Heist.
The Black Keys set starts with a comedic psa on two screens with actor/comedian David Cross portraying a character named Harry Trousersnake who is the head member of Dads Interested in Choosing Kids Songs, or “D.I.C.K.S” for short. Urging parents to keep their children away from The Black Keys. Obviously a joke, the end of the video leads the crowd into chanting, “Black Keys” until the band comes up on stage.

Enter 4-time Grammy winners Dan Auerbach on vocals and guitar and Patrick Carney on Drums. Along with touring band members, Brooklyn Instrumentalist Chris St. Hilaire, siblings Zachary (bass) and Andrew (guitar) Gabbard of Southwest Ohio’s Buffalo Killers and Ray Jacildo on keys who has worked with artists such as Hank Williams Jr. and Ceelo Green.
The show starts with “I got mine” followed by “Howling’ For You, and “Fever”.
“Tighten Up”, “Your Touch”, “It ain’t Over” and the very popular “Gold on the Ceiling” are performed before taking it down a notch and sending the Gabbard brothers backstage and bringing out Kenny Brown who is an American blues slide guitarist that lives in north Mississippi hill country. Dan stated that if it wasn’t for Kenny Brown they wouldn’t even be there!

Joining him on stage was bassist Eric Deaton who is also of the North Mississippi Hill Country Blues tradition. With images of tractors, old mills and back country roads the band plays a set of cover songs from Junior Kimbrough, John Fahey, John Lee Hooker, Richard Berry and a few from R L Burnside of whom Mr. Brown learned from. The two artist were also featured on The Black Keys’ tenth album titled “Delta Kream” that was released on May 14th, 2021.
Then the Gabbard brothers came back on stage and the band played 7 more songs including, “Lo/Hi”, “Everlasting Light”, and “Wild Child” and then exited the stage. About five minutes later the group came back on, dimmed the lights down and spotlighted Dan this time with an acoustic guitar and started to sing “Little Black Submarines” while the crowd sang along, then the band joined in for the rest of the song.

The night ended with “Lonely Boy”- by that time the crowd were scattered dancing in the seats and in the isles. With a stunningly huge backlit display and music blaring, the song ended and the arena turned dark. It was truly an awesome way to end the night.
The show had incredible lighting and visuals as usual and put on a killer show. (Not easy considering they’ve been on tour much of this year). This was The Black Keys second to last stop on the tour, ending in Dallas on October 18th. Their latest album Dropout Boogie released on May 13, 2022 and is available on all streaming platforms.
See all our concert photos on Austin 101 Magazine.
Set list:
I Got Mine
Howlin’ for You
Fever
Tighten Up
Your Touch
It Ain’t Over
Gold on the Ceiling
Stay All Night
(Junior Kimbrough cover)
Poor Black Mattie
(R.L. Burnside cover)
Goin’ Down South
(R.L. Burnside cover)
Poor Boy Long Ways From Home
(John Fahey cover)
Crawlin’ Kingsnake
(John Lee Hooker cover)
Have Love, Will Travel (Richard Berry cover)
Lo/Hi
Everlasting Light
Next Girl
Ten Cent Pistol
Your Team Is Looking Good
Wild Child
She’s Long Gone
Encore:
Little Black Submarines
Lonely Boy