The Black Keys at The Gov

Date: Tuesday, March 8th 2005
Venue: The Governor Hindmarsh AKA The Gov
Time: 8pm door opens, 9pm gig start
Price: $40
Bands: The Black Keys w/ The Vasco Era

Holymotherofgod. That's one way to describe such an awesome night, despite it being a weeknight because poor old Adelaide had to give the weekend for the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane (east coast) shows.

The Black Keys hail from Ohio, USA and they're one of coolest / rockiest / amazing rock duos out there. Good drums and kick ass guitar riffs are all you need. Melbourne's The Vasco Era have the honour of supporting them and they didn't disappoint either.



The Vasco Era are a rock trio from Melbourne and had two weekend gigs in Adelaide before tonight's big show. Their track, Kingswood is currently on high rotation on Triple J and were one of the featured bands during last November's Oz Music Month, which highlighted local Australian acts into the next big thing. The band came on stage around 9pm. They were energetic, lively and the singer had a catchy, raspy voice that got the crowd so involved in their set. The drums were brilliant, the bass was tight and the singer not only belted their songs well but swapped from percussion/steel drums to lead guitar (catchy riffs) and then, to the "slide" ukelele. Great stuff and perfect support for The Black Keys.



The Black Keys came on stage around 10.30pm and kicked off with their hit singles Thickfreakness and 10AM Automatic (which made the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown of 2004). Every single song they played with absolute passion and the crowd loved it. They also played some album favourites and actually did two encore sets, which pleased everyone. Funny moment of the night: Tiny incident when some guy rushed on stage to join in the fun but was moved back into the crowd. Ayway, it was such an awesome set and definitely worth my $40 (probably even more for their double encores!). I wished they played my favourite song, The Lengths, but it seems like their set tonight was more for the "rockier" side since none of their mellow favourites were played, unfortunately.

All in all, such an awesome night. I even have the set list for the more curious ones out there. The Gov was such a perfect venue, too. I don't like to rate gigs but definitely full marks for this one.


The Black Keys' Set List*:
Thickfreakness
10AM Automatic
Hard Row
Busted
Stack Shot Billy
Set You Free
Breaks
Girls On MY Mind
When The Lights Go Out
Till I Get My Way
Grown So Ugly
No Trust
Have Love Will Travel
---
ENCORE
Everywhere I go
Heavy Soul
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SECOND ENCORE

*Thanks to my mate, Shantel, who nabbed the list.