Working class heroes

March 11, 2005
Hungry Black Keys Dan Auerbach, left, and Patrick Carney have the forgot-my-wallet blues.


The Black Keys put the blues in blue-collar ... with a vengeance. George Palathingal reports.

The Black Keys
Where: Metro Theatre, 624 George Street, city
When: Thursday, 8pm
How much: $40.10
Bookings: 9287 2000
More information: The show on March 18 is sold out

We know what you're thinking. If you read about another white American rock duo playing their "21st-century take on the blues", you're gonna scream, right? Well, shut your mouth. The Black Keys are among the few worthy of your attention.

Anyone who saw the Akron, Ohio, band tear the Falls Festival a new one over New Year knows this. So, it would seem, does the band's 25-year-old singer-guitarist, Dan Auerbach.

"Just like any kind of music there's horrible blues music," he says of the genre's flooded market. "But when it's good, it's really good.

"I can't say that I like any contemporary people who somebody would consider blues."

Yet contemporary blues and roots music are huge in Australia. Stamp either of those terms on a product, however ordinary, and young Australians can't open their wallets quickly enough. Just ask Jack Johnson, if you can get him to hear you through the mountains of cash no doubt surrounding him.

"I wouldn't really consider that Jack Johnson stuff blues in any way, though," Auerbach says. "It's just kind of folky ... I don't know, jam-band kind of stuff. Easy to put on in the background."

The singer laughs, most likely because he knows it's difficult not to prick up your ears at the exhilarating, primal-but-tuneful noise he makes with his old college friend, drummer Patrick Carney. Did the Black Keys make a conscious decision to not make music that meanders off into the background?

"There's not too much deliberate going on in our music," Auerbach says. "However it comes out, it comes out. It's just the way that me and Pat sound. Since we were, like, 17 years old, we've been playing in the same way. Basically had the same sound. It's kind of weird."

Like most musicians, Auerbach claims the duo shared nothing more than their friendship and a common desire to make music to please themselves. Unlike most musicians, I'm inclined to believe him.

"That's all it was," he says. "We got together at Pat's dad's house and made mix tapes on a four-track. That was it.

"We really didn't get into this to put out records or to play shows - everything has kind of just happened without us really even trying. We definitely worked our asses off, but it was never our intention to like, 'We're gonna form a band, we're gonna sell a lot of records,' y'know?

"We never thought we'd go to Europe, we went to Europe; we never ever thought we'd go to Australia; y'know, this'll be our fourth tour of Australia."

They're touring now with their third album, last year's Rubber Factory, so titled because it was recorded in a former tyre factory in Akron. The title and artwork also evoke a hard working, salt-of-the-earth feel, as if the Black Keys are some kind of blue-collar rock band.

"I think we're definitely small-town people," Auerbach says. "We like to keep it pretty simple. I don't know if that's blue-collar or not, but that's what we are and I think that has a lot to do with where we recorded our record."

The Black Keys seem very much to be a band of the people.

"Um, I think we are, 'cause we don't lie to anybody, y'know? We're not making shit up, it's not bravado or something bullshit. If you like it, you like it, and if you don't ... who cares?"

They've seen some troubling things?

"Hell, yeah. It's only been, like, two years that we've solidly been on the road and we've seen bands come and go already, y'know? Bands who kind of, their labels were telling them they're amazing and management was telling them they're amazing and they put out a record and nobody gives a shit.

"Or bands who are popular who think they're just God's gift ... doing all kinds of drugs and acting f---ing stupid. I find that really boring. It's unproductive. I don't know. I like music way too much."

Such is their love for music that the Black Keys are happy for fans to make their own recordings of shows.

"Yeah, totally," Auerbach says. "I love to listen to live recordings. We have absolutely no problems with that."

They're not concerned about people trying to make a buck off them?

"Yeah, but I've bought bootlegs before ... so I get what's coming to me. I don't know. You can't stop people from doing that.

"But I think so far it's been really positive - people trading and, uh, a lotta people sharing the music. It's a pretty cool thing."
