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CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 On Friday, August 22, a pair of Akron music exports will return to their Ohio roots when the Black Keys<\/a> perform at Blossom Music Center <\/a>alongside Texas singer-songwriter and guitarist Gary Clark Jr. Tickets for the show start at $54.50 and are on sale now at ticketmaster.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The West Akron duo\u2014drummer Pat Carney and singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach\u2014are touring behind their 13th studio album, \u201cNo Rain, No Flowers,\u201d released earlier this August. As with their previous album, \u201cOhio Players,\u201d the pair of Firestone High grads enlisted several of their talented musical friends to assist in writing and recording, including famed producer Scott Storch, Grammy-winning songwriter-producer Daniel Tashian, and Songwriters Hall of Famer Desmond Child, among others.<\/p>\n The album release comes after a very public rough patch for the six-time Grammy winners, following the announcement and eventual cancellation of their 2024 American \u201cInternational Players\u201d arena tour, which was quickly followed by a split with their then-new management. The duo returned to their hometown in October of last year to play a free private event for Stand With Crypto at the Akron Civic Theatre <\/a>for about 300 people\u2014a show Auerbach called \u201cthe weirdest gig we\u2019ve ever played,\u201d and which Carney recalled as \u201cvery weird.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe had gotten really (expletive) by the music industry, by people we were working with, and ended up with a bunch of tour expenses that had to get covered,\u201d Carney said in a phone interview a few shows into the current tour.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we got an offer to play that show and we were told it\u2019s a non-partisan whatever,\u201d Carney said, noting that he researched some of the other bands that had played shows for Stand With Crypto, including the Black Pumas.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then we played that show and just got railroaded in the New York Times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Related Reading: <\/b>What was up with the Black Keys and their weird private Akron crypto show?<\/a><\/p>\n Carney said the entire experience was educational\u2014not just about the music business he\u2019s been embedded in for nearly 25 years, but also about what happens when artists climb to the proverbial mountaintop and what comes next. Carney has long been wary of complacency, believing your own hype and expecting continued success, which can lead to inertia and doing \u201cthe same tours over and over and over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI guess there\u2019s a level of complacency that can happen with success. And I think that was just a healthy reminder that usually, the path of least resistance is also the path that will get exploited the most. And you have to find new ways around it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of my favorite bands have had to navigate that throughout their careers. We\u2019re just another one of those bands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Carney said the music industry was already \u201cslimy,\u201d with most artists getting screwed on recordings. But now, bands and fans are feeling it on the touring side of the business\u2014through ticket prices, fees, and the rising costs of every aspect of attending a concert. The industry also tantalizes artists, strokes their egos and encourages them to seek more fame and do whatever it takes to get \u201cbigger.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe industry sets you up to just feel like you gotta climb the mountain. That\u2019s where there\u2019s always this next thing. It\u2019s like: the Beachland Tavern to the Beachland Ballroom to the Agora to the Convocation Center to the arena. Now it\u2019s Blossom. And if that works out, great. But that\u2019s not what defines success,\u201d Carney said, adding that as everything gets bigger, so do expenses\u2014like larger stage productions requiring more buses, which require more insurance and other costs that fall on the artists.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to figure out how to navigate around it. Tickets shouldn\u2019t be as expensive as they are, and everything\u2019s crazy. You sell a ticket and there\u2019s a $25 charge on it\u2014you don\u2019t get any of the money. It just goes straight to someone else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But despite that stretch of professional rocky road, Carney and Auerbach have kept going. Carney said the \u201cOhio Players\u201d album was a big undertaking\u2014flying around the country to write and record with longtime friend Beck and others, and flying to England for a couple of days to work with Liam Gallagher\u2014adding up to the band being on a creative and \u201cgood musical clip.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, the pair toured clubs around the U.S. and Europe as DJs, spinning 45s in venues where \u201cpeople might like to dance to it.\u201d Their crate digging and listening to a variety of music\u2014including \u201ca lot of funk, a lot of soul, a lot of pre-disco, a lot of crap garage rock, a lot of post-punk\u201d\u2014influenced the sound and songs of \u201cNo Rain, No Flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n The record, a short, punchy collection of 11 groovy songs in 36 minutes, bears the sonic fruit of their crate digging. Tracks include the funky thump of the single \u201cBabygirl,\u201d featuring fuzzy rock bass, catchy barrelhouse piano riffs, and organ from Storch, while the title track rides a smooth disco-lite bass and a catchy dance-rock chorus. The slinky groove of \u201cDown to Nothing\u201d recalls the \u201970s soul records the band has been absorbing, while \u201cMan on a Mission\u201d\u2014with its fuzz guitar riff, stomping chorus, and a too-brief heavy garage rock middle eight\u2014reaches back to the \u201cAttack and Release\u201d days and should get fists pumping in the Blossom crowd. The dance-ready love song \u201cAll My Life\u201d has roots in the smooth soul sounds of the \u201970s, with plucky guitar licks and a funky bass line. By contrast, \u201cA Little Too High\u201d has a mid-\u201970s classic rock feel, and the album\u2019s closing rock ballad \u201cNeon Moon,\u201d with its \u201cTake me home, back to you\u201d chorus, is ripe for mid-show phone-light hoisting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just influences poking through from what we\u2019ve been listening to. And I think a song like \u2018Make You Mine,\u2019 or \u2018Babygirl,\u2019 those are indicative of some of the Detroit soul or Philly soul we\u2019ve been listening to.\u201d<\/p>\n The current American leg of the tour comes after a successful run in Europe, where Carney said the band was invigorated not only by the difference in Europe\u2019s touring environment but also by the fans\u2014including a show in London where 14,000 fans showed up and \u201cwere going nuts, everybody for the entire set,\u201d which Carney said felt good just to play for people who are into and support the music.<\/p>\n As the band nears its 25th year in 2026, navigating the ever-evolving, shark-filled, and often venal waters of the industry landscape is a constant challenge\u2014but the Black Keys aren\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, I\u2019m from Akron, dude. I know that the game changes. It\u2019s hard to not be an optimist growing up in a place like Akron. I grew up in post-industrial Akron surrounded by the remnants of a super-successful industry. And I\u2019m like, well, the music industry is going to end up just like Akron\u2014and I\u2019m still going to be able to figure out how to navigate it because we\u2019re (expletive) cockroaches. Let\u2019s figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n The Black Keys perform Friday, August 22, at Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls. Gary Clark Jr. opens. Showtime is 7:30 p.m Tickets start at $54.50 and are on sale now at <\/i>ticketmaster.com<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cleveland.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 On Friday, August 22, a pair of Akron music exports will return to their Ohio roots when the Black Keys perform at Blossom Music Center alongside Texas singer-songwriter and guitarist Gary Clark Jr. Tickets for the show start at $54.50 and are on sale now at ticketmaster.com. The West Akron duo\u2014drummer Pat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[22477],"class_list":["post-1974195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-live-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}