It was early April 2003. I was just beginning to get used to, or at least learning to love the fascinating cesspool that is Hollywood, California. This was prior to the ‘Disneyifcation’ of Hollywood Blvd which has now converted the strip into a shiny corporate wasteland of souvenir stores, American Apparel outlets and Sponge Bob or Batman or Darth Vader (or whatever fucking movie they are punishing us with) costumed buffoons attempting to prise greenbacks out of the waddling tourist hordes.

I, along with my band mates were bunkered down in the fabled Los Angeles studio Sunset Sound. scrambling to put the finishing touches on my band’s debut album. We had been locked in the studio for what seemed like years when the eternal itch to play live grew stronger. When you’ve been sequestered in the studio for months, laboring over a tape machine and Neve console, you develop this burning desire to get on stage. This yearning to turn up loud and play live, make mistakes, sweat and get a reaction would often draw us to play off the cuff shows. This time though we were green, very green, as green as the dollars in Sponge Bob’s now flush square pockets.

It had been months since we had graced any form of stage. Studio-itis had truly kicked in so we organized a show. It was to be my first of countless shows in the USA. Our manager hooked up a support gig at Spaceland in Silver Lake. A small but legendary shithole that has been the launching pad for many a career. The show was with two bluesmen from Akron, Ohio who needed a support act for the launch of their sophomore LP.

Alright, I know that I’ve blown the surprise of who this mystery duo is by including their name in the title of this story but what fun would it be if I didn’t at least build some tension or set the scene a little or to quote these gentlemen in question to provide some ‘attack and release’. Anyhow, I diverge.

The band in question was none other than The Black Keys and the LP was Thickfreakness. This show was on the actual day of its release, 8th of April 2003. Now you would think that I would remember some shining detail of my first ever show in the USA. A moment when my band all locked in and looked at each other and had that epiphany that ‘hey man, we’re gonna make it’ or ‘We have never played so well in our lives’… Sadly I don’t remember a second of our set. Not a scratch, not one glorious moment of one of the most important gigs of my career. It has been washed from my brain, scrubbed clean by copious amounts of Tecate and free-poured vodka sodas.

On the contrary and alarmingly, I DO remember every second of The Black Keys set. I remember the storming intro, the point when I realised (to my dismay as a bass player) that these two guys sound as thick as fuck sans bass. I remember the first sound to depart the then heavily bearded mouth of Dan Auerbach. A dusty bourbon soaked growl sitting between Otis Redding and the southern “field holler” work songs recorded by American archivist Alan Lomax. They were blowing my tiny 22 year old mind! Patrick Carney’s loose untrained rhythms were deliciously late but still thunderous. The perfect foil to Auerbach, A bespectacled praying mantis smashing that tiny kit. I remember the She Said She Said (The Beatles) cover. The only cover of a Beatles song that doesn’t make me what to punch a wall.

They were sublime, powerful and transfixing, A true force. As mentioned earlier I can’t remember how we were! The notoriously prickly LA street press paper The LA Weekly listed “The Black Keys and Jet together at Spaceland” first in their LIVE HIGHLIGHTS FROM VISITING BANDS in the 2003 yearly review issue. If only I could remember if we contributed much to this accolade!

Our bands were on different trajectories. My band was about to experience a meteoric rise and is now defunct while The Black Keys were just lighting the kindling under their burners. They now, after years of touring, festivals and fantastic records are playing arenas across the globe. I have seen them on the festival circuits of Europe, Japan and America. They are a workman like band, one who has toured extensively over the years. Chipping away at us like the stripe adorned prisoners and axe men of the Alan Lomax field recordings.

I have never seen The Black Keys play an arena but I have a feeling they won’t be bringing the bells and whistles that some bands need to step up and fill these massive spaces. There will be no backing track. There will be no “ego ramp” for Dan to strut down and high five his screaming fans. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dan and Patrick set up as-close or closer than that night when we shared a tiny stage at Spaceland in Silver Lake California.

-Mark W