LIVE TONIGHT: The Black Keys come from out of the blue

Who the hell are the Black Keys?

Seriously. We’ve never heard of these guys before. Thought it was some combination of Alecia Keys and the Black Eyed Peas – and here they are from out of the blue playing the Big Building, Rexall Place tonight (Wednesday, June 29). The show is sold out. The Black Keys.

Come on. Admit it. You don’t have a clue who they are, either. Perhaps you have some vague memory of some cool tunes some cool friends played at some cool party and when you asked what it was, they answered and you said WHAT? They answered again and you said, SPEAK UP! I CAN’T HEAR YOU! So they walked away to find someone cooler to talk to and you never found out it was the Black Keys.

This band didn’t come out of nowhere – but you can see it from there: Akron, Ohio.

There’s not much to tell, really. Two nerdy looking guys named Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney formed a White Stripesy, Franz Ferdinandian sort of band, Auerbach on guitar, Carney on drums, and proceeded to quietly build a solid cult following with their bare bones blooze-rock stylings. As often happens with these sort of stories, a garage band became rock superstars almost overnight because of a single song: A catchy, lovely bit of romantic nonsense called Tighten Up, which blasted the airwaves and topped charts around the world in 2010. Were it not for that little song, friends, the Black Keys would’ve been playing the Starlite Room.

Amazing, isn’t it? Are they doomed to one-hit wonderment? Let’s hope not. The Black Keys is one of the freshest sounds in rock to come along in a long time.

Little known fact: All Black Keys songs are only in the keys of D flat, E flat, F sharp, A flat and B flat.

Not really – but you would’ve believed it, right?