Review: Black Keys' riffs hit just right at Stage AE

If you remember, this all started back in May 2024 when The Black Keys announced a tour that would stop at PPG Paints Arena that October.

It would have been a return to the venue where they had played their previous three Pittsburgh shows, most recently in 2019.

As it turned out, Black Keys fatigue must have set in among the more casual fans because ticket sales lagged and the arena tour was scrapped in a humbling cycle for the band.

On Sunday, Pittsburgh fans were finally going to get their Black Keys show, but had to wait one more day because of a rainout. Happily, Monday was a beautiful night and Stage AE a perfect venue for the Akron band.

The Black Keys are simply not an arena-rock band. Their music is too rooted in gritty blues, garage rock and groove for a cavernous space, and with about 5,000 people packed in front of them, every riff landed with considerably more force.

The timing was right, too. The Akron duo got back to basics on this year’s “Peaches,” and that was the mindset from the get-go.

The songs were a lot of the same but it’s a solid “same.”

Dan Auerbach travels with a bottomless bag of thick, fuzzy blues riffs that must be an absolute blast to unleash night after night on classics like “Have Love Will Travel,” “I Got Mine” and “Heavy Soul.”

Taking in the scene, it occurred to me that we’ve hit a point where you can count on one hand the number of blues-based bands that are drawing 5,000 people. There’s Tedeschi Trucks, Jack White (sort of), maybe Joe Bonamassa and not much else.

Like White, Auerbach resists the temptation to turn every song into a long jam. He nails most of the solos in under a minute and keeps things moving.

Patrick Carney, who briefly went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, has long been criticized for not being John Bonham. Fair enough. There are certainly times when he could drive it harder, but he has a loose-limbed swing that provides the band’s swaggering grooves.

With four backing musicians onstage throughout the night, Auerbach had opportunities to lock into some fiery twin-guitar passages with Barrie Cadogan, particularly on the gorgeous “Weight of Love,” which owes an obvious debt to “Dark Side of the Moon” (“Breathe,” in particular).

One of the evening’s other changeups was “Everlasting Light,” with Auerbach slipping into falsetto soul before the song exploded into a chaotic ending enhanced by the disco ball and flashing strobes.

The new material fit naturally alongside the older songs. “She Does It Right,” the Dr. Feelgood cover from “Peaches,” sparked one of the show’s visual turning points as psychedelic imagery suddenly filled the massive screen behind the band.

Another highlight was “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire,” a finger-snapping soul tune written by Willie Griffin of The Miracles. With opener Eddie 9V joining in, it became a three-guitar army and something closer to Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane” than the original. They also tore into The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” happily embracing their proto-punk side.

The encore was short but sweet: “Little Black Submarines,” building from quiet acoustic introspection into a Zep-sized thriller, and the crowd-pleasing closer of “Lonely Boy.”

The wait for The Black Keys was long, annoying and, for the band, a little embarrassing. In the end, though, we all got the better show.