MUSIC REVIEW - DAN AUERBACH - LIVE AT THE MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG

Review: Blues, Rock and Soul Blended Together And Turned Up Past Ten

By: Stephen Cedars

March 9, 2009

(Tuesday March 3, 2009 in Brooklyn, NY) Dan Auerbach (best known as the voice and guitar of The Black Keys) opened his set at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 2nd with the folk lament “Trouble Weighs a Ton,” the same song that opens the album he’s on tour promoting. Played solo on electric guitar, this first tune showcased in two minutes all of Auerbach’s main strengths at a performer: his seemingly effortless but markedly proficient playing in a traditionalist American idiom, a smooth and soulful vocal delivery, and a palpable, powerful, and total commitment to his song. It was an interesting way to open a rock and roll show, with the least-adorned tune of the night leaving an excited crowd with the dilemma of whether to holler or ruminate.

It wasn’t until he kicked into the next tune, “I Want Some More,” now accompanied by the rest of his six-piece band, that the real virtue of Dan Auerbach’s live show was revealed –- the guy likes to play it loud — a marked distinction from the more muted production of the album, an alteration whose accompanying intensity makes his trademark blues-rock function more as garage rock and makes immediate every one of those heavy trudging riffs that populate his songs.

Throughout the night, his guitar solos were mixed louder than even his vocals, the effect being that even the more mediocre tunes kicked with raw power as soon as he moved down to the lower frets. His backing band, Hacienda, who preceded Auerbach’s set with a roughly hour-long set of their own post-Beatles Americana classic rock, provided a steady, rocking rhythm section over which Auerbach never faltered. At its best, it was a real hootenanny. One of the most electric numbers was a cover of a Rocking Horse song which was doubly assaulting, thanks not only to two drummers but also to a superb, impassioned vocal from Auerbach.

All that being said, the surplus of intensity did, at times, illuminate the weaknesses in some of Auerbach’s lesser tunes — the ones lacking the immediacy of the volume at which they were rendered. Those weaknesses most often resulted from the limitations in his technique -– after enough songs, the idiosyncrasy of his vocal cadence and the distinguishable nature of his riffs lose their novelty, not in itself a detriment except for when they fail to compensate for the lesser songwriting. At times, the performance arrangements felt too stiff, so that the musicians, Auerbach included, seemed constrained when the potency of their playing demanded longer, looser jams. These aren’t criticisms that made the show any less fun, but there was a level Auerbach reached pretty early which he and his band never seemed to top (the exceptions, in my book, being the aforementioned Rocking Horse cover, his country-rock stomp “My Last Mistake,” and the Bo Diddly-on-speed rock of “Street Walking”).

In all this talk of music and songs, I neglect the main attraction, Auerbach himself who, as a performer, is distinguished less through his proficiency and more through his palpable commitment to the song before him. His eyes closed tight while he sings, a simple rhythmic sway, and an attitude that is not oblivious to the audience but is somewhat unconcerned with it –all of these attributes give the same sense that ultimately distinguishes his album as well, the sense that he is deeply committed both to his songs and the styles in which they’re written. It’s a unique quality in someone equally committed to blasting his rock and roll, and it’s ultimately what made Auerbach’s show so distinctive and such a high recommendation.

Dan Auerbach's solo album 'Keep It Hid' is out now on Nonesuch Records.