![\"Dan](\"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/20260603db016.ej_303508460.jpg\" "\\"Dan")
About 20 years ago, veteran bluesman T Model Ford summoned me across a Calgary hotel lobby to emphatically declare that he puts his foot “through the floor.”
It was a little puzzling at the time, but I knew exactly what he meant. I’m pretty sure that The Black Keys, who played Rogers Place on Wednesday night, would also know what he meant. That I’m still not sure whether they put their foot through the stage at the Oilers home arena is irrelevant. The attempt was made, and that’s the important thing.
Currently making their way across Canada on their Peaches ‘n Kream tour, the two-piece (drummer Patrick Carney; guitarist and vocalist Dan Auerbach) blasted their way through a selection of tracks augmented by keys, percussion, second guitar, and bass. Critics are calling it a return to stripped down form, and there’s some truth to that, even with the extra musicians. Staging was simple, with only a sign spelling out the band name in light bulbs glowing behind them. Chatter was kept at a minimum, attention was paid to the mid career hits.
By the second song they had the crowd on their feet, trusting in the deep in our subconscious Gary Glitter-isms of Gold on the Ceiling to yank everyone up. Their fuzzed out take on Earl Hooker’s You Got to Lose (from their latest release, Peaches!) kept up the energy, and in some places a little seat dancing, followed by the propulsive, new wave tinged Fever. Everlasting Light changed things up even more, with Auerbach crooning a la Curtis Mayfield over an irresistibly funky rhythm.
Some pretty nice sonic side excursions for a group that often gets slotted as simply a riff-y garage-blues outfit, one of the few to escape the indie two-piece explosion of the early 2000s. That they dance on several musical precipices at once is a fine thing, and while they can occasionally veer just inches from becoming a real life Blueshammer, they never fully drop into it for too long. Their feet don’t quite go through the floor, but they’re also not lightly tapping.
Other wonderful things I noticed at the concert included swathes of the crowd cheering during an Auerbach solo that tilted towards Steve Cropper in a time when arena shows all seem to demand Eddie Van Halen or equivalent pyrotechnics. That felt nice. Also nice: the congas on Lo/Hi, the whistling on Tighten Up, the groovy take on Dr. Feelgood’s She Does it Right, quick snippet of Question Mark and the Mysterians organ added for extra flavour.
They could slide on their hit single era but the Black Keys are mixing up the set list from show to show, always a sign of a band that doesn’t want to get complacent. A couple of decades down the line and they seem to want to continue challenging themselves. You can hear it in the music they play just before hitting the stage, including The Stooges’ Down in the Street. Even in recorded form that’s a song you don’t want on the sound system before your opening number.
Unless you’ve got some stomp in your soul, of course, and like T Model Ford you’re raring to put your foot through the floor.
With Jeremie Albino
When Wednesday night
Where Rogers Place
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