Well they may still be picking cotton in Mississippi, but back here in London autumn has set in, chilly mornings, early evening gloom and cold nights. This time of year also brings a new crop of fresh-faced students to the great metropolis, and it feels as though most of them are here in the Forum with us. Neatly-pressed grunge meets GAP outfits, too much money, too much beer, and rather too much pop-eyed wonderment at the simple glory of being grown up like this.

Dan Auerbach presides over the evening with the bearing of a man who’s, well, to be honest, playing the guitar in his bedroom. He seems almost oblivious to the audience, and barely seems to communicate with sidekick Patrick Carney, though the two are as tight as ninepence. Technicians might like to know that his two Marshall amps, rather than facing the audience are very deliberately pointed to the side, heavily miked. There are pedals all over the place, at least one of which stalls half way through the evening. I think he’s playing the Gibson with the Bigsby – but hey, if you want to check up on the details of this stuff then just look at the ‘Guitar Geek World’ section on the band’s forum. I have a feeling most of the audience do.It was Auerbach, by the way, whose life was changed listening to a Junior Kimbrough album in, surprisingly, his room at college. And though the majority of their tunes are self-penned it’s an inspiration that the band are happy to acknowledge – indeed what better place to start if you don’t know them than their recent tribute to Kimbrough, Chulahoma. Of course it’s easy to stress the derivative nature of their work, as intense blues groove follows intense blues groove. You half expect that the next line in every song will be “Well I’m standing next to a mountain”, and in addition to Hendrix you’ll hear as many seventies bands in their tunes as you can remember.

Dan Auerbach

Patrick Carney

Hang on, what about the drummer? That’s Patrick Carney, who is also a bit of a dab hand at producing albums too. Well according to the pimple-pinching pre-pubescents who occupy the Black Keys forum he’s a bit of a miserable bugger, because all he does is come on stage and play the drums. What do they expect – tap-dancing and jokes? Let me tell you, no matter how good Auerbach’s guitar and singing was, this show was simply blown away by the power drumming of Mr Carney. In fact it wasn’t like being at a gig; it was more like a boxing match. And the bastard won every round. It went like this. Bell rings – soft approach, squirrelling round the snares, some light cymbals, a slow but incessant foot pedal on the bass drum. Audience seduced into blues rhythm and great singing, caught unawares.First the bass drum intensity increases. Then, “Christ, how can he do that with one foot?” The snare starts to kick in and the cymbals are going off everywhere, along with the tom-toms. By this time the bass pedal is slugging in the chest every time, pounding away. Can I take it? Deep breath – yes – it’s hot, but it’s cool. How naive. Without warning the bass pedal triples in ferocity and the floor mounted tom-toms start punching and pounding at you like a veteran heavyweight moving in for the kill. On the ropes! It’s the quorum in the Forum. Too much.

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