The Black Keys Tickets

Multiple Dates, Times and TBA Events

Short Biography
THE BLACK KEYS return to New Zealand... to unlock their magic

The rapturous reviews of their latest album 'El Camino' are all in, Coachella has been headlined, Grammys have been collected, Madison Square Garden sold out in 15 minutes and it now seems perfectly clear.

The BLACK KEYS are the biggest rock band on the planet right now. No stadium can hold 'em, but Vector Arena and The TSB Bank Arena will try their level best in November.

It's a long way from their modest beginnings as a garage rock band in Akron, Ohio in 2001 but here they are, seven albums later, making the jump to hyperspace.  Selling out festivals and arenas and shifting huge amounts of what used to be called 'units', all while keeping their musical integrity firmly intact.

The breakthrough came in 2010 upon the release of their sixth album 'Brothers'.   Steeped in the turmoil of broken marriages and busted friendships, its instantly iconic cover alone was enough to warrant a place in the pantheon of classic rock albums, but it was the music therein that became a statement of intent and a signpost of what was to come.  The band's 21st century white boy blues was further expanded on their critically lauded late-2011 album 'El Camino', which became an instant commercial hit.  Thus far 2012 has been a year of highs for the band - most recently they co-headlined the Coachella festival with Radiohead, Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg.

To say that their return to New Zealand is highly anticipated is a vast understatement.  We haven't seen them for a few years and some of the grit of their early albums has been replaced by a more glam sensibility, but not much else has changed.  It's still the unassuming duo of Dan (Auerbach - vocals/guitar) and Patrick (Carney - drums) playing like they did in the clubs and bars of Akron, albeit this time with the mother of all light shows.

Don't miss this rare chance to see a band at the top of their game.

In-depth Biography
It’s too facile to call the Black Keys counterparts of the White Stripes: they share several surface similarities -- their names are color-coded, they hail from the Midwest, they’re guitar-and-drum blues-rock duos -- but the Black Keys are their own distinct thing, a tougher, rougher rock band with a purist streak that never surfaces in the Stripes. But that’s not to say that the Black Keys are blues traditionalists: even on their 2002 debut, The Big Come Up, they covered the Beatles’ psychedelic classic “She Said She Said,” indicating a fascination with sound and texture that would later take hold on such latter-day albums as 2008’s Attack & Release, where guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney teamed up with sonic architect Danger Mouse. In between those two records, the duo established the Black Keys as a rock & roll band with a brutal, primal force, and songwriters of considerable depth, as evidenced on such fine albums as 2003’s Thickfreakness and 2004’s Rubber Factory.

Natives of Akron, Ohio, the Black Keys released their debut, The Big Come Up, in 2002, receiving strong reviews and sales, and leading to a contract with Fat Possum by the end of the year. That label released Thickfreakness, recorded in a 14-hour session, in the spring of 2003, and the Keys supported the album with an opening tour for Sleater-Kinney. The Black Keys' momentum escalated considerably with their 2004 album Rubber Factory, which not only received strong reviews but some high-profile play, including a video for “10 A.M. Automatic” featuring comedian David Cross. The band’s highly touted live act was documented on a 2005 DVD, released the same year as Chulahoma -- an EP of blues covers -- appeared. The Black Keys made the leap to the major labels with 2006’s Magic Potion, a moodier record that continued to build the group’s base. The band capitalized on that moodiness on 2008’s Attack & Release, whose production by Danger Mouse signaled that the Black Keys were hardly just blues-rock purists. Salvaged from sessions intended as a duet album with Ike Turner, who died before the record could be finished, the album was the Black Keys' biggest to date, debuting in the Billboard Top 15 and earning strong reviews.

Following their second live DVD, the Black Keys spent 2009 on side projects, with Auerbach releasing his solo album Keep It Hid in the beginning of the year, and Carney forming the band Drummer, in which he played bass. At the end of 2009, Blackroc, a rap-rock collaboration between the band and producer Damon Dash, appeared. Brothers, released the following year, saw the Keys returning to their tough blues roots with a new grandness, earning three Grammy Awards, landing on year-end lists from NPR to Rolling Stone, and going gold. The band offered a more straight-ahead rock & roll sound with 2011's El Camino. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi