Review: How did The Black Keys manage to turn Charlotte into a Mississippi blues bar?

It was an extraordinary detour (and risk) for a world-class band with hits so infectious that many became ubiquitous as the instantly hummable backbeat to commercials, soundtracks and video games.

The Black Keys drew thousands Wednesday night to PNC Music Pavilion to scream along with standards such as “Gold on the Ceiling,” “Howlin’ for You” and “Little Black Submarines” — and they delivered powerful renditions of all those war horse anthems (and more) from their extensive catalog that dates back more than 20 years.

But Keys co-founders Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were determined to do more than just chug through their chart-making standards to satisfy an adoring Charlotte crowd that stood throughout a set of 22 tunes in 100 minutes.

With a five-song, mid-show interlude through “Delta Kream” (their 2021 covers album of gems by Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and John Lee Hooker), The Keys made a point of daring to turn a popular music venue in North Carolina into a North Mississippi hill country blues bar for 25 minutes.

And it worked.

The blues underpin everything the Akron, Ohio, duo are about, and it’s the foundational grit and muscle to the fusion of garage rock and swampy rhythms that create insatiably catchy grooves.

While much of the crowd probably was being introduced to “Crawling Kingsnake” (which is roughly a century old), “Stay All Night” and “Goin’ Down South,” the music from decades ago was met with the same adulation as The Black Keys’ 21st century originals.

Auerbach and Carney shared center stage during their slice of blues covers with guitarist Kenny Brown (a longtime guitarist with Burnside) and bassist Eric Deaton (who has held down the beat for Kimbrough).

Brown and Deaton also played on the breakneck sessions that produced “Delta Kream,” but it was more than familiarity and experience that made the foursome work. They built a lockstep groove that never felt self-indulgent or overly noodling, mostly because the slide guitar work was so sublime by Brown, a 69-year-old called “a living legend” by Auerbach.

“If it weren’t for Kenny, there’d be no Black Keys,” Auerbach said.

His respectful wonder was genuine in a way that many rock geniuses have honored their underappreciated idols and influences throughout the years. This was Paul Westerberg saluting Alex Chilton with his eponymous Replacements gem, or Kurt Cobain constantly paying homage to the Melvins and Vaselines.

The Black Keys’ set with Brown and Deaton felt akin to Nirvana bringing the Meat Puppets on their legendary “Unplugged” episode in 1994 (though Auerbach fully was plugged in Wednesday as he still fancies coiled cords to tether his guitars to the wall of amps).

After Brown and Deaton departed, The Black Keys spent the final third of their show alternating between many classics (“Everlasting Light” and “Ten Cent Pistol” were among a half-dozen cuts from the seminal “Brothers” album) and new material (“Your Team Is Looking Good” was a standout from their latest “Dropout Boogie” album).

Lifelong friends who are now in their 40s, Auerbach and Carney both have become fathers in recent years. They already seem to have mastered their new midlife phase of Dad Rock with their usual understated aplomb.

The bearded Auerbach never took off his sunglasses during the evening show, maintaining an aura of anonymity (“Hey, you look just like the character Tim Roth played in ‘Reservoir Dogs!’ Are you Mr. Orange?”) while ripping off the riffs with ease. When Auerbach bobbed his head and strained to hit the notes requiring his throatiest growl, he looked a little like Ray Charles resurrected as a virtuoso guitar hero.

Meanwhile, Carney spoke nary a peep for the entire show while pounding away on the drums with his unique and demanding drive.

There was little banter between songs aside from alternately thanking and asking the crowd for help with chanting along to their signature rave-ups.

The show coalesced with closer “Lonely Boy” synthesizing the blues, rock and pop melodies that had fans chanting “Oh! Oh, oh, oh!” long after Auerbach and Carney had tossed their guitar picks and drumsticks toward the seats.

It’s impressive that just two people can create such a wall of sound, but The Black Keys deftly play with such unbelievable confidence, it’s no surprise that their audience always will follow.

The Charlotte crowd faithfully did Wednesday night — straight to the Mississippi Delta and back.

The concert was a little bit of a home game for opener Band of Horses, which hails from Charleston, South Carolina, and has been touring with longtime Archers of Loaf bassist Matt Gentling (who also appeared on BoH’s latest album).

Originally formed in Seattle by frontman Ben Bridwell (who also has family roots in Atlanta), Band of Horses always has been the band with a little bit of everywhere, and the addition of Gentling’s Chapel Hill crunch is a major plus.

The backbone of Archers of Loaf’s urgent indie-rock anthems with his energetic on-stage presence and distinctive backup vocals, Gentling is a surprisingly seamless and unobtrusive fit in Band of Horses’ more laid-back, guitar-driven melodies.

The trust in Gentling was evident in “NW Apt” and “Islands On The Coast,” which he brought in with a throbbing bass line that had Bridwell enthusiastically nodding in approval and later joking that his new bandmate had packed the crowd in his home state.

The only downside is that 45 minutes wasn’t enough to do justice to Band of Horses’ well-received music, which brought a solid early crowd to its feet for its well-known (“Is There a Ghost?” “The Funeral”) and newer (“Crutch) selections in nine-song set.

SETLISTS

BLACK KEYS

I Got Mine

Howlin’ For You

Fever

Tighten Up

Your Touch

It Ain’t Over

Gold On The Ceiling

Stay All Night

Coal Black Mattie

Goin’ Down South

Do the Rump

Crawling Kingsnake

Have Love, Will Travel

Lo/Hi

Everlasting Light

Next Girl

Ten Cent PistolYour Team Is Looking Good

Wild Child

She’s Long Gone

Encore

Little Black Submarines

Lonely Boy

BAND OF HORSES

Is There a Ghost?

The Great Salt Lake

No One’s Gonna Love You

Islands on the Coast

NW Apt.

Factory

Crutch

Laredo

The Funeral

The General Specific

This story was originally published July 28, 2022 at 1:58 PM.