The Black Keys Live @ The Astoria - 29th May 2008

My Sister Faye and I headed up to London (again!) this week to see the final show in the latest Black Keys tour. The weather was shit, but there was still a wicked turnout and not only that the crowd actually seemed quite up for it unlike a few other shows I've attended in London lately.
I done the standard trick of running out of work and jumping straight on the train to Paddington, and managed to get there in like an hour an ten minutes, not bad going considering it took me almost 2 and half to get home.
Anyway the support band was The Ettes from LA, the lead singer of which is Hot! Apparantly they are playing at 93 Feet East tonight so if you're in the area make sure you check em out. They play a fresh punky sound with that strong beat track you'd expect from a band supporting the Black Keys. I take my hat off to the drummer Poni as she was not only beating the shit out of the drums like Animal or something, but she was also spot bollock on time and sporting a haircut bigger than mine, mad props!
After they finished up and I had managed to get over gawping at Jem we popped out for a quick smoke, and picked up some more booze from the bar, and got back down the front just in time to see Dan and Patrick taking the stage. We randomly bumped into Matt who i used to live with right about this time, which was strange because I haven't seen him in about a year, what are the chances of our paths crossing at the Astoria? It was good to see him though, but I didn't really have time to think about that as on stage they cracked straight on with 'Same Old Thing' and set the crowd off.

The Black Keys - Same Old Thing


They played a few tunes from most of their albums, as well as a few new bits I didn't recognize. I think my favourite was Busted, I love that shit, it was one of the first things I heard of theirs a few years back and still sounds fresh to me. Having said that it was all about the songs off Attack & Release and they generally got the best crowd reaction when they wheeled them out. Patrick has to be the hardest working drummer i seen live, he goes for it 110% throughout, you can see just from the look on his face how much effort he puts into it. I was lucky enough to catch one of his drumsticks at the end of the night like a 15 year old groupie haha. Dan is also a talented motherfucker on the guitar and made it sing like a whipped bitch, making for a pretty special show. So yeah to summarize I really enjoyed the night from start to finish and would definitely highly recommend anyone to see either of the two bands if an opportunity should arise, and if it doesn't then make your own opportunity!!!