As a longtime TBK fan, I’m absolutely thrilled by their success. I’ve seen them in small venues (like this… I was 2-3 feet to the right of the camera, just as far up.) as well as big (headlining at Bonnaroo) and everything in between. I’m glad they gained the attention they deserve and that so many people have been exposed to them.
The selfish part of me, though, is a bit melancholy about it all. Everybody always asks why I say seeing Dan and Pat play these days at large venue or arena/stadium shows makes me sad. I could type out a long(er), detailed explanation, but this video does the job just as well…. You see, I don’t care they’re popular, I don’t care they’ve gained fans, and I don’t care they’re making money. These are all great things. I’m sad for purely personal reasons.
Their shows used to be a way to surround myself in the memory of my first couple concerts, and in a sense, relive it all. It’s what made Black Keys concerts so great, so untouched in my mind. I guess you could say that feeling you get the first time you see a band live, the goosebumps, never left. These days though, this is almost impossible for me. The whole experience, while still great, has just changed too much. It doesn’t bring me back… It only tells me that this (what you see in the video) probably will never happen again, and it’s all going to fade in my mind until it’s nothing more than a couple snapshots. The meaning and purpose of it all has left dramatically for me. I go to these concerts to go to the past, but now they just remind me time only moves in one direction… It’s just sad.
