The Black Keys, Gomez & Ash Grunwald – Luna Park, Sydney (9th Jan, 2008)

12 January 2009 by Max Easton

The promoters of this coming together of minds must have been rubbing their hands in glee. How could it get any better? Australia’s favourite one-man band of fury Ash Grunwald, Mercury Prize winners Gomez and the phenomenal Black Keys all together under the Big Top in Sydney’s famous Luna Park. With the clanking of rollercoasters, the Top 40 spew coming from the dodgem cars and the scent of fairy floss in the air on entry, this was a triple headline performance of carnival proportions. It started early; with the Summer sun seeping through the doors and reaching the bar as Dr. Dog get introduced to Australian audiences. It ended with an exhausted, sweaty, post-Black Keys mob staggering into the night’s air in the early hours of the following day. This was how that transformation transpired.

It begins with Dr. Dog, a four-piece experience not entirely dissimilar to a gutsy version of the Beatles. Poppy riffs are distorted and backed by chunky bass lines as they play a range of songs from their discography. The performance is solid, but marred by the eagerness of the audience to move onto bigger things as suggested by an array of various Gomez and Black Keys t-shirts adorning the punters. They get 30 minutes to work with and make the best of it, thundering through the set with eccentric jumping motions and African explorer’s outfits. The swift set-up for the next act suggests that despite his appearance as a three-piece for the recent Woodford Folk Festival, tonight Ash Grunwald is playing solo.

Ash takes the stage with his well-known laidback charm, spitting out a ‘how ya goin’?’ before driving into his 45 minute set, hair flailing, feet stomping. He works two stomp boxes with ease, stretching the limits of his resonator as he plays through tracks from his back catalogue. He changes guitars, speaks of the difficulty of opening for bands that people are so eager to see, before breaking a string halfway through ‘The Devil Called Me a Liar’ to the lyric of: ‘nothing will ever go wrong.’ He laughs, points out the irony of this, and plays on, struggling to make it through on five strings. He admits that the rest of the set was to be played on this guitar, before picking up his resonator and struggling to think of tracks to play from his discography. Ash leaves with fans wanting more, but a welcome departure considering the follow up is to be British five-piece Gomez, off the back of the 10th Anniversary of their groundbreaking debut, ‘Bring It On.’

Gomez stroll onto the stage to a huge reception, wasting no time in getting started on a set encompassing all five of their studio albums. Gomez have upgraded their live show, throwing a new spin on classic tracks like ‘Ping One Down’ and ‘Rhythm and Blues Alibi.’ Every track from start to finish is reimagined slightly, enough to freshen it up, but not so far as to not obliterate their fantastic catalogue. Their set is full of highlights and nods to the fan base. Tom admits that ‘Girlshapedlovedrug’ is a dumb song, before playing it with passion and Ben and Blackie pull of a signature dance move – last tour it was a hip shake, this time around it’s coordinated head movements. The highlight of the set by far is the debut of new track ‘Airstream Driver .'

 It resembles some of Gomez’s more upbeat tracks in recent history, stopping short of the cherry sweet poppiness of the upbeat ‘How We Operate’ tracks, yet moving in another direction from ‘Bring It On’ and ‘Liquid Skin.’ It’s a fantastically well received debut and will no doubt see massive airplay when it hits the airwaves in the coming months. Their live show (and apparently the new album) seems to have taken a stiff departure from their recent wall-of-sound style, returning to the varied, yet individualised sound of their early work. It’s a much-needed move and sure to satisfy fans and strangers alike. Gomez leave the stage to a cheer and belated attempt at an encore answered by roadies clearing the stage for the two-man experience that is the Black Keys.

With a giant, inflatable dreamcatcher hoisted behind them, Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach from Akron, Ohio settle behind their drum kit and guitar respectively. The promptly bust into a high-powered set that draws the fine line from the audience between a mosh, and a bunch of people elbowing bystanders in the head. It’s ferocious, raw and powerful. They receive huge responses for their latest single, ‘Strange Times’ as well as classic tracks like ‘Your Touch’ and ‘10AM Automatic.’ These guys illicit a response like few bands I’ve seen. Their infectious, grinding, groove moves bodies in a manner exactly opposite to that of Miles Davis. Masses of people swirl violently through the crowd, the push-pull physics dragging people’s focus from the band to staying upright. The Black Keys become little more than background music to this struggle. However, they play on and evoke this sensation for the rest of this set to rapturous applause. Regardless of the tempo, there’s a fury and release barely rivalled by audience response in this genre of music. With bands like The Mountain Goats and The Fumes following in the footsteps of The Black Keys, this two man guitar and drum combo is slowly forming a following of its own. The Black Keys have helped spawn a sub-genre of their own and they are complete and utter masters of it. Returning for a two song encore before leaving to the exhausted relief of the masses, the Big Top is emptied to the streets of North Sydney, the Harbour Bridge sitting upon them and the Opera House in the distance.

The gig was an overwhelming success. The four bands complimented each other perfectly; from the grind and power of Ash Grunwald and the Black Keys to the pop sensibilities of Gomez and Dr. Dog, the gig was arranged and organised splendidly. Hosting it at Luna Park was a masterstroke, and very few people (aside from the few injured or enraged at the Black Keys) will walk away with nothing more than appreciation for living in a time of music where a gig such as this was possible.

(Photo: Jordan Mulroney, Southbound Festival 2009)

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